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Maths · Geometry

Identify a cube net

Determine whether a net folds to a cube.

Practise it now

Only one of these layouts folds up into a cube. Fold them and watch what happens, then pick the one that closes.

It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.

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A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Six squares that close a cube

Which of these four arrangements of six squares folds up into a cube?

Four arrangements of six squares, each one drawn edge to edge on squared paper.

cube net. Faces: . Answer pictures: option 1 marked blank with faces at row 0, column 1; row 1, column 0; row 1, column 1; row 1, column 2; row 1, column 3; row 2, column 2. option 2 marked blank with faces at row 0, column 1; row 1, column 1; row 2, column 0; row 2, column 1; row 2, column 2; row 2, column 3. option 3 marked blank with faces at row 0, column 0; row 0, column 1; row 0, column 2; row 1, column 0; row 1, column 1; row 1, column 2. option 4 marked blank with faces at row 0, column 0; row 0, column 2; row 1, column 0; row 1, column 1; row 1, column 2; row 2, column 1.

Every arrangement has exactly six squares, so counting alone will not separate them.

  1. Option A, a layout of six joined squaresA row of four squares, with one square above the second square and one square below the third square
  2. Option B, a layout of six joined squaresA row of four squares, with two squares stacked above the second square
  3. Option C, a layout of six joined squaresA block three squares across and two squares down
  4. Option D, a layout of six joined squaresA row of three squares, with one square above the first, one square above the third, and one square below the middle one

Answer: A row of four squares, with one square above the second square and one square below the third square

How you get there

A cube has six faces, so a net needs six squares, and all four of these have six. The real test is whether any two squares would land on the same face. Take the first arrangement and bend its row of four round into a band: those four become the four sides. The square above the second one folds up to close the top. The square below the third one folds up to close the bottom. Six faces, none of them doubled, so it makes a cube.

Why the other answers tempt

The block three across and two down is the arrangement most children pick, because it is the neatest and it does have six squares. Roll it up and only three squares go round the sides, which leaves the cube two faces short and two squares spare.

If they are stuck, say this

Find the longest straight row and bend it into a band first, because that row makes the sides. Then take each leftover square in turn and ask which open end it closes. Every end should be closed exactly once.

Now do it live in The Net Checker

What this exercise is doing

The Net Checker

Only one of these layouts folds up into a cube. Fold them and watch what happens, then pick the one that closes.

Layout A is the only one whose six squares close onto six different sides of the cube, which is what makes it a net. Fold layout B instead and the square in the top row, far left lands on the same side as the square in the bottom row, third from the left, so one of them would have to cover the other. Every wrong layout here is a single square away from being a real net, so a layout that looks almost right usually is only almost right.

  1. Step 1. Fold them. Tap two of the layouts to watch them try to fold. Only a real net closes into a cube - any other layout lands two squares on the same side.
  2. Step 2. Which one is a net?. Now pick the layout that folds into a cube with nothing covered up.

What to say if they get stuck

  1. Fold a layout one flap at a time and keep a finger on the square you started from. Watch where each flap ends up.
  2. Every layout here fills the grid and every one of them is a square away from folding, so nothing on the surface separates them. Fold each one up, keeping a finger on the square you started from.
  3. A layout is a cube net only when its six squares land on six different sides. Two squares on the same side means one would have to cover the other, and that layout is out.

Open The Net Checker on its own page to share it

Where identify a cube net sits in the 11+

The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.

This opens up

Track cube faces from a net

Face tracking presumes a valid cube net.

How identify a cube net differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: determine whether a net folds to a cube, and it stops where excludes tracking marked opposite faces.

  • Validate a cube net

    Determine whether a 2D arrangement can fold into a cube. Excludes marked-face tracking.

Related maths skills

All maths 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about identify a cube net

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

Determine whether a net folds to a cube. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the geometry strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

Identify a cube net is the step before track cube faces from a net

A free diagnostic maps the whole run of skills either side of this one, so practice follows the order the paper actually needs.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic