Cube Folding
Which cube folds from this net?
EUROCONTROL's "fold cubes" exercise. An unfolded cube — a net — is shown with colours and shapes on its outer surfaces, alongside three folded cubes. Pick the one that could be built from that net. The cubes may be rotated to give the view shown, and the reverse of the net is always blank.
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What to expect
- One net, and three folded cubes showing three faces each.
- The cubes are rotated, so the same cube can look quite different.
- Wrong options show faces that end up opposite each other, the right faces the wrong way round, or a face that is not on the net at all.
What it measures
- Spatial visualisation
- Mental manipulation of 3D shapes
- Holding a shape in mind while rotating it
Instructions
- 1Fix one face as your reference, then work round from it.
- 2Two faces that end up opposite each other can never both be visible — that rules most options out quickly.
- 3Track which faces are adjacent rather than folding the whole net at once.
- 4A single contradicting face is enough to rule an option out.
Tips
- On a net, two faces separated by exactly one face in a straight line end up opposite each other. Spotting those pairs first is the fastest way in.
- Blank faces count as information — a cube showing a colour the net does not have is out immediately.
Cube Folding
A flat net of a cube with symbols on its faces, and several folded cubes to choose from. Only one folded cube is consistent with the net, and the orientation of each symbol counts as well as its position.
Spatial visualisation is one of the abilities EUROCONTROL names. The distractors differ only in which face a symbol sits on or which way up it is, so a rough fold followed by a guess scores at chance. It is a visual task, so it is described here rather than written out — a static rendering would not be a sample of it.
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