MathDB
Pentomino to Cube?

Source:

February 19, 2008
geometry3D geometry

Problem Statement

The polygon enclosed by the solid lines in the figure consists of 4 4 congruent squares joined edge-to-edge. One more congruent square is attached to an edge at one of the nine positions indicated. How many of the nine resulting polygons can be folded to form a cube with one face missing? [asy]unitsize(10mm); defaultpen(fontsize(10pt)); pen finedashed=linetype("4 4");
filldraw((1,1)--(2,1)--(2,2)--(4,2)--(4,3)--(1,3)--cycle,grey,black+linewidth(.8pt)); draw((0,1)--(0,3)--(1,3)--(1,4)--(4,4)--(4,3)-- (5,3)--(5,2)--(4,2)--(4,1)--(2,1)--(2,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--cycle,finedashed); draw((0,2)--(2,2)--(2,4),finedashed); draw((3,1)--(3,4),finedashed); label("11",(1.5,0.5)); draw(circle((1.5,0.5),.17)); label("22",(2.5,1.5)); draw(circle((2.5,1.5),.17)); label("33",(3.5,1.5)); draw(circle((3.5,1.5),.17)); label("44",(4.5,2.5)); draw(circle((4.5,2.5),.17)); label("55",(3.5,3.5)); draw(circle((3.5,3.5),.17)); label("66",(2.5,3.5)); draw(circle((2.5,3.5),.17)); label("77",(1.5,3.5)); draw(circle((1.5,3.5),.17)); label("88",(0.5,2.5)); draw(circle((0.5,2.5),.17)); label("99",(0.5,1.5)); draw(circle((0.5,1.5),.17));[/asy] <spanclass=latexbold>(A)</span> 2<spanclass=latexbold>(B)</span> 3<spanclass=latexbold>(C)</span> 4<spanclass=latexbold>(D)</span> 5<spanclass=latexbold>(E)</span> 6 <span class='latex-bold'>(A)</span>\ 2 \qquad <span class='latex-bold'>(B)</span>\ 3 \qquad <span class='latex-bold'>(C)</span>\ 4 \qquad <span class='latex-bold'>(D)</span>\ 5 \qquad <span class='latex-bold'>(E)</span>\ 6