Maleszyk 9C

Joey Maleszyk
GAT 9C
10 January 2012
Cube in a Cube Project
Have you ever done something for so long that your hands begin to cramp up? Well that
is what happened to me when I was folding the paper for the cube. It was a challenging process
to put the inner and outer cube together but I succeeded in doing it and finished both cubes. With
those cubes, I can find the surface area and volume of both of them. The formula for area is
A=BH. The A means final area, the B means the base, and H means the height. That can
help you find how big a two-dimensional figure is. The formula for surface area is the same as
area but with surface area, it is used to find out how big a three-dimensional figure is. With
surface area, you find the area of one face and then multiply that number by however many sides
there are. Volume is the amount of space something takes up. All you need to know is the base,
the width, and the height. The formula for volume is V=BWH. The V means the final volume
in units3, the B being the base, the W being the width, and the H being the height of your
figure. In this paper, I will tell you the surface area and volume of the inner cube and of the outer
cube.
The inner cube was the easier of the two to fold. Figure 1 shows the steps of how I folded
the inner cube. Also it was the easiest to find the area. The length of the original piece of paper
unfolded is 6 inches. When you complete your cube, the length of one side is 1.52 inches. That
is shown below in Figure 2. The last formula, in using x as your length, shows that the
equation is 1/4x2. When you fill in 6 as your variable of x, that is how you get 1.52 inches.
Then since it is a square, all sides are 1.52 inches. Since the area formula is A=BH, you have to

Maleszyk 9C
multiply 1.52 by 1.52 and you get 2.254 inches and then you simplify the 2.254 to 2.25
times 2 which comes out to 4.5 squared inches as your area of one side. You then have to
multiply the 4.5 squared inches by 6 since there are 6 sides. That equals 27 squared inches and
that is your total surface area.

Beginning Step of
Folding

Final Step of
Folding

Figure 1. Steps to Folding the Inner Cube

1/4x2

1/4x2

Maleszyk 9C

Figure 2. Measurements of Finding Length in X.

The volume of the inner cube is quite easy to find. The formula is V=BWH and the base,
the width, and the height are all 1.52 inches. I found that out because I looked at Figure 1 and
used the same figuring I did to find the area. So when I multiplied 1.52 inches three times, I got
3.3758 inches. I then simplified the 8 into 4 times 2. Next I multiplied 3.375 by 2 to get
6.752 cubed inches as my volume of the inner cube.

The outer cube was very confusing to put together but I managed to put it all together and
it turned out good. In Figure 3, it shows the beginning piece of paper and then the resulting paper
left. After putting it together, I first found the length of one side and that was 32 inches. After I
found that, I did the area formula, A=BH, and I multiplied 32 by 32 and I got 94 which can
be simplified down to 18 and the area of one side is 18 squared inches. I then multiplied the area
of 18 by 6 because there are 6 faces on the cube. With that calculation, I got 108 squared inches.
I then had to subtract 27 from 108 because that is my inner cubes area and since there are the
open spaces on the outer cube, that is the size of the open spaces. So with that, I got 81 squared
inches as my total surface area of the outer cube.

Maleszyk 9C

Beginning piece of paper

Resulting piece of paper

Figure 3. Steps to Fold the Outer Cube

I next found the volume of the outer cube. To get the volume, I used the volume formula
of V=BWH. The base, width, and height of the outer cube is 32 inches so I multiplied 32 by
32 by 32 and got 278 inches. I then simplified the 8 down into4 times 2. I then simplified
the 4 down into 2. Next, I multiplied 27 by 2 and got 54 and then I put on the 2. My volume of
the outer cube is 542. I was not done there. I then had to subtract 6.752 from 542 because I
had to take out the volume of the inner cube because I had to take the volume as if it was part of
the outer cube. My final volume of the outer cube is 42.252 cubed inches.

Maleszyk 9C

Doing the calculations for the surface area and volume of the inner and outer cubes was
challenging. I liked doing this project because it gave us a three-dimensional aspect of area and
volume that we have not worked with before. I created the inner cube with 6 pieces of paper and
the outer cube with 12 pieces of paper. Just like my hands were after folding the cubes, they are
after typing this paper, cramped.