If you marked the midpoints of the edges of a cube and sliced off all its corners through the midpoints of its edges, how many and what type of faces would the truncated figure have?

When that same question came up in my class, some of my students could visualize it, others were more "hands on" types. The night before I went down to my hobby woodshop and actually cut out a 10cm by 10cm by 10cm cube, found the midpoints the way you described and cut of the corners in the way you suggested.

(I put little dowels in so I could re-assemble the pieces)
The other students in my class were then able to see and understand the result

Can you visualize what will happen ?
Hint: consider what the results are on one of the sides.

My other part of the question was,
"What was the volume of the original cube, and the new shape?"

It sounds like it would look like a hexagon.

A hexagon is a 2-dimensional figure.

Would you not end up with a 3-D solid ?

Hint: See if you can a piece of styrofoam, it would be easy to see the results. It doesn't have to be precise.

Hint#2: Look at a die (one die, two dice)
Most dice used in games have their vertices slightly rounded. Isn't that the beginning of our cube process, except the "rounding" continues until we reach the midpoints.

Hint#3: What shape do you see at each of the original vertices?
What shape do you on each of the original sides ?

Ok, I found a box and cut off the corners as stated, but it looks like an octagon now. (and not a very good one) Am I missing something?

To answer this question, let's start by visualizing the process step by step.

1. Start with a cube. A cube has 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices.

2. Mark the midpoints of each edge. This will create 12 new points, with 2 points on each edge.

3. Connect these new points to form a new figure. The result will be a truncated cube.

Now, let's analyze the characteristics of the truncated cube:

1. Faces: The original cube had 6 faces, and each face will contribute one face to the truncated figure. Additionally, the slicing process will generate new faces. Each vertex will contribute a triangular face connecting to the three adjacent vertices. Since the cube has 8 vertices, there will be 8 additional triangular faces.

In total, the truncated cube will have 6 original faces plus 8 new triangular faces, resulting in a total of 14 faces.

2. Types of Faces: The original cube had 6 square faces. When the corners are sliced off, each corner contributes 3 triangular faces. Therefore, the truncated cube will have 6 original square faces and 8 additional triangular faces.

In summary, the truncated cube will have 14 faces, consisting of 6 original square faces and 8 triangular faces.