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Monday, May 5, 2014

More Cube Problem, 7

Category: Solid Geometry, Trigonometry

"Published in Vacaville, California, USA"

The plane section ABCD shown in the figure is cut from a cube of edge a. Find the angle which the section ABCD makes with the lower base of the cube if D and C are each at the midpoint of an edge.

Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life

Solution:

To understand more the problem, it is better to label further the given figure as follows

Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life

Since the edges of a cutting plane which are AB and CD are parallel to the four parallel sides of a cube, then two triangles formed by a cutting plane with a cube are congruent. 

Since the edges of a cube are perpendicular to each other, then two triangles are right triangles.

Therefore, the angle of a cutting plane with respect to the lower base of a cube is



 
or