Herzberger cuboid

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all 11 poly cubes with the wooden box in the background
The Herzberger cuboid, as it was brought out on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Abitur in Herzberg by the Friends of the Philipp-Melanchton-Gymnasium

The Herzberger cuboid is a game for developing spatial imagination . It has the size of 40 unit cubes (5 × 4 × 2) and consists of eleven different poly-cubes , namely all poly-cubes from bi-cubes to tetra-cubes . The game is similar to the Soma cube, which consists of only seven parts.

Possible tasks

The first obvious task is to assemble the cuboid so that it can be tidied up in its box. This task is relatively easy to solve.

Furthermore, there are the most varied of figures as tasks, which are to be built using all parts.

If only a subset of the existing poly cubes is used, a cube with an edge length of 3 can be generated from it. The first task is to choose the parts in question, one of the possibilities being the soma cube . Then the cubes have to be put together.

Much more demanding tasks ask for the number of all different ways of arranging the starting parts in a certain figure. Or evidence should be provided as to which figures can or cannot be realized with which poly-cubes.

history

The author of the Herzberger cuboid is senior teacher Gerhard Schulze (1919–1995), who worked intensively with mathematical games in his extracurricular activity from 1982–1994. On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of his hometown Herzberg in 1984, the Herzberger cuboid was first produced and thus made known to a broad public. Further articles about the Herzberger cuboid appeared in the mathematical school magazine alpha . Since 2008, interested math teachers have been supported by specially prepared working materials in the use of the Herzberger cuboid in school lessons.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mathematical school magazine alpha , 18th year 1984, issue 6, page 128
  2. ↑ Mathematical school magazine alpha , Volume 24, 1990, Issue 6, page 137
  3. ↑ alpha - Mathematics as a Hobby , Volume 28, 1994, Issue 1, Pages 16 and 17
  4. ^ Mathematical school magazine alpha , 20th year 1986, issue 3, pages 66 and 67
  5. ^ Mathematical school magazine alpha , 25th year 1991, issue 5, pages 22 and 23
  6. ↑ worksheets for math on meinUnterricht.de