How many unit cubes are painted with only 1 color?

[JohnPerez]

The cube shown is composed of 27 unit cubes. the top and bottom faces of the cube are painted red, and the other faces are painted blue. how many unit cubes are painted with only 1 color?

 

[Dr.Peterson]

Where would those cubes be located on the big cube? Can you count those locations?

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[pka]

The cube shown is composed of 27 unit cubes. the top and bottom faces of the cube are painted red, and the other faces are painted blue. how many unit cubes are painted with only 1 color?

This post is so confused as to be meaningless.
1) Is says "The cube shown" but there is no cube.
2) it composed of 27 unit cubes. Are we to suppose that each face of each sub-cube is painted?
3) It says "the top and bottom faces of the cube are painted red" is the each of the 27 unit cubes?
Can you rework the post to make clear sense of the question?

 

[JohnPerez]

 

[Dr.Peterson]

Thanks for showing the whole problem; I already knew what it said, and what it meant, because this is a familiar kind of problem to me.

They are consistently distinguishing "the cube" (the whole assembly) and "a unit cube" (one of the little pieces), so it really isn't so poorly written. You may ignore pka; you've done nothing wrong.

But can you answer my questions? If we paint the whole outside of the assembly, which little cubes will have sides painted in more than one color? Which will have only one? Just imagine it.

If necessary, color in the picture and show us your result.

 

[pka]

You may ignore pka; you've done nothing wrong.

Well are you not a pompous jackass? Just because you have seen a similar problem does no mean that the presented question is the one you have seen. I too have eddied many such problems. Please forgive me, I don't understand community college levels.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

The student did nothing wrong, exactly as I said. If there is a problem, it is the author's. Telling a student that a problem is meaningless, as if it's their fault, is not terribly helpful. Yes, the student can indeed ignore your comments.