1990 AMC 12 Problem 10

Attempt Problem 10 of the 1990 AMC 12 below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 1990 AMC 12 solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

10.

An 11×11×1111\times11\times11 wooden cube is formed by gluing together 11311^3 unit cubes. What is the greatest number of unit cubes that can be seen from a single point?
328328
329329
330330
331331
332332
Answer: D
Concepts:cubeinclusion-exclusioncounting
Small hint:
At most three faces of a cube are visible from one point
Big hint:
Use inclusion-exclusion on three mutually adjacent 11×1111\times11 faces
Solution:
From a suitable point one can see three mutually adjacent faces. They contain 3(112)−3(11)+1=363−33+1=331 \begin{aligned} &3(11^2)-3(11)+1\\ &=363-33+1\\ &=331 \end{aligned} distinct unit cubes: subtract the three shared edges and restore the corner cube.
Thus the correct answer is D.
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