World 2 · Nets & Folding · 7 minNets that fail
Why some patterns collide
Teaching this? Open projector mode
Six squares are not enough on their own. A pattern fails when two of its squares fold onto the same face of the cube: they collide, and one face is left open.
Two patterns that always fail:
- a 2 × 2 block of squares, because only three faces meet at each corner of a cube, never four;
- five or more squares in a row, because a belt around the cube only has room for four.
Check yourself
Why can no net of a cube contain a 2 × 2 block of squares?
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