Answer to Question #10132 in Geometry for saravan

Question

: An ant lives on the surface of a cube with edges of length 7cm. It is currently located on an edge x cm from one of its ends. While traveling on the surface of the cube, it has to reach the grain located on the opposite edge (also at a distance xcm from one of its ends) as shown below.
(i) What is the length of the shortest route to the grain if x = 2cm? How many routes of this length are there?

(ii) Find an x for which there are four distinct shortest length routes to the grain

Answer 1

(I) Theshortest way is 2+7+7+2 = 18 sm. There are 2 such ways.
(II) Forx=3.5 sm (middle of the edge) there are 4 such ways.