Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cubes

Yellow Shirt with Cubes

yeti — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:53:46 -0800

Where can I find this t-shirt? It's yellow with 24 paired cubes colored with green, red, & yellow faces, each face subdivided into cells of 8. I saw someone on the street wearing this shirt and thought it was neat. Then I spotted it last night on a pretty bad sitcom (thanks to a promo during Sunday football) so I took a picture to see if I could locate it. Tineye was no help with a screen grab, and I can't find the right google terms.

Looking to recall a cube-based game or puzzle

DandyRandy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:47:17 -0800

Help me remember the name of a game/puzzle from the early '70s that featured dice-sized clear acrylic cubes. As I recall, there were five or so cubes, and they each had a colored square painted on each side. The square may have been filled in or just an outline, and the colors were basic primaries like red, blue, yellow, green, etc. I don't even remember the object of the puzzle, but I remember it as beautifully-designed, even elegant. I'd love to track down whatever that game/puzzle was called.

I recall seeing it in drug stores and other such non-toy retail stores as well as in regular toy stores. Ring a bell for anyone?

How to best communicate the data about which I will later AskMefi?

vanoakenfold — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:11:37 -0800

Question-Asking-Filter: What would be the best way to ASK a question on AskMeFi that I want to ask? Pre-question question-answers within. So I'm sort-of asking it now, but I want to pose it again using the answer(s) this question reaps. So anyway.

I've got more than a hanfdul of wooden cubes stuck face-to-face together in oddball configurations that, together, form a mystery number of x-by-x-by-x cubes, that I made many years ago and have since forgotten the solutions. How should I present the spectrum of the piece configurations, in a text-based setting like Ask-Mefi?

(a) Is there a freeware PC/web-based program I could use to build a visual representation of them, take screenshots and post for MeFites to mentally assemble?

Would the question be too much to ask, considering I don't know how many x-by-x-by-x cubes the pieces actually form total?

(b) should I instead type out a series of..
XXX // XOX // XXX
XOX // OOX // XOX
XOX // XXX // XXX
..whereas O is the wood and X is absence of wood, for each piece?

I'm truthfully not even certain all of the available pieces are even present, given that I don't know their solution(s), but they were all found in a sealed baggie so I might presume they were the complete set(s).

Things I do know: some of the pieces are shorter in overall cube-length than the entire assmbled-cube's max width. I did make a 4x4x4 cube and a 5x5x5 cube at some point. I am the originator of the puzzle and the solution has not ever been posted on the web by me or anyone else to my knowledge (although the gnomes who often scamper about and hide my keys in random places may have at some point posted the solution). There are 25 pieces, with a maximum piece-length of no more than 5 cubes across.

The question though -- how I could I best communicate the configurations of these pieces, and perhaps secondarily, would anyone even bother answering it, and perhaps tertiarily, would providing a non-MeFi-based incentive for answering it encourage someone to answer it?

i usually love ikea, but those lekman drawers are ugly.

kidsleepy — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:53:11 -0800

Help me find storage drawers for my Ikea bookshelf! I have this Expedit bookshelf from Ikea. I set it up horizontally, and would like to get four containers for the bottom row. I don't like the plastic Lekman drawers that Ikea carries. Ideally, I'd get something like these green fabric cubes from Target, but they are one-inch too big. Where can I find 13" x 13" (or smaller) cubes/boxes/drawers/containers, in a non-clear material (bright colors desired, but optional), without spending more than $50?

The Various Workings of a Cube-Shaped Gallery

0bvious — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:14:20 -0800

Imagine a cube-shaped building, with ten cube-shaped rooms along each side (10 rooms long, 10 high & 10 deep). Each cubular room has 4 walls, 1 ceiling and 1 floor. Each of the 6 interior surfaces in all 1000 cubular rooms is decorated with a different piece of art. The rooms can be moved around the building, as if it were an enormous Rubik's cube, but they can also be spun on their axes, so all 6 walls of all 1000 cubes is capable of touching all the others (if the cube is so arranged). How many combinations of art within the 'Cube Gallery' are possible? If you can run me through the workings of the maths I would be extra grateful. Also, what technical words/phrases/language are useful/interesting in expressing this concept? To restipulate the numbers:

- A cube gallery with 10 cube rooms along each side (10x10x10)

- Each cube room has 6 pieces of art on its interior surfaces

- All the cube rooms are capable of being rotated into every possible variation (ceilings becoming walls becoming floors etc.)

Thanks in advance!

How should I set up our new office?

quirked — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:28:47 -0800

The company I work for is probably moving away from our parent company into a 3400 sq. ft. building of our own. I have the task (opportunity) to suggest how we can set up this office for our 31 people. The question is, is there a non-traditional option that is better than the standard cube farm, but is still inexpensive and effective? I have created a basic floor plan showing one possible layout. Each person has around 30 sq. ft. of space, so it's tight. Sales and sales support are on the left. Design, content and tech are on the right. Everyone sits in front of a PC and we may go wireless.

I'm not totally against cubes. I work in one now, and since it has 3 ft. high walls, it works pretty well. Unfortunately, they cost the company about $2,000 each. My boss has suggested getting desks at OfficeMax for $100 each. Besides the fact that I don't want to put my own desk together, my cube offers a lot more desk and storage space than a desk would.

We have joked that we need something somewhere between a cube and a beanbag chair. Does anyone have a creative solution that is better than another cube farm?

Sugar cubes are not cubes! Need ones which have square sides in UK

Ampa — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:27:48 -0800

Sugar cubes are NOT cubes!! I need a cuboid with at least 2 equal dimensions... I am prototyping a board game that will require several hundred cube-like pieces. I had thought to use sugar cubes as a cheap way to test the principle so bought a 500g box at the supermarket (brand = Whitworths).

BUT they are NOT cubes... in fact each dimension is different (roughly 5mm x 6.5mm x 8mm)

So... can anyone recommend a brand of sugar cube available in the UK that is a genuine cube (or at least has a pair of square sides)?

Alternatively... can anyone suggest a cheap source of regular cubes (min 8mm sides)?

I have searched for tiles. beads etc. The best that I've found are these wooden cubes .

Thanks ;)

Cube set design?

grabbingsand — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:19:42 -0800

TheatreFilter. In college, I saw a touring company perform Two Gentlemen of Verona using a very simple set made from maybe a dozen sturdy (but lightweight) cubes. Between scenes, the players would rearrange and restack the cubes to serve the next scene. There was no blackout. I think the sides were of various colors, but I can't recall. My question: Is this an established low-end / low-budget theatre practice? Might there be some write-ups or even books to help out someone wishing to use the same method? Also, if anyone wants to share their own no-budget theatre success stories, please share.

Identify this geometric novelty toy

Faze — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:09:55 -0800

What do you call those three-dimensional geometric novelties, consisting of eight cubes, joined to each other at one edge to form one large cube, whose pieces can be flipped around to display different images on the exterior of the large cube? What is the history of this delightful object? What are the geometric priniciples behind it?