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A solid wooden cube is painted blue on the outside. The cube is then cut into 27 smaller cubes of equal size.

What fraction of the total surface area of these new cubes is blue?


If you liked this problem, here is an NRICH task that challenges you to use similar mathematical ideas.


This problem is taken from the UKMT Mathematical Challenges.
You can find more short problems, arranged by curriculum topic, in our short problems collection.