What shape appears when a plane slices a cube? Turn the model and move the plane to make the hidden geometry visible.
Preparing the 3D model…
Each cube edge crossed by the plane creates a vertex of the cross-section. Join those vertices in order to trace the cut. The plane’s direction and position determine which edges it meets.
A horizontal plane is parallel to the top and bottom faces. It crosses four vertical edges and makes a square. A plane through a diagonal direction still has four vertices, but its two pairs of sides have different lengths, making a rectangle.
A plane with normal (1,1,1) through the centre meets six edges, making a hexagon. Slide the same plane towards a vertex and it meets only the three edges from that vertex, making a triangle.
Do not identify a section by appearance alone. First count the cube edges crossed by the plane, then join the intersection points in order.
A short printable review with a separate answer page.
