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Nandakumar R
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Inside-out dissections of a cube

Ref:

Definitions: A polygon P has an inside-out dissection into another polygon P' if P′ is congruent to P, and the perimeter of P becomes interior to P′, and so the perimeter of P′ is composed of internal cuts of the dissection of P. A dissection from P to P' is totally (or fully) inside out if we further insist that no point on the boundary of P should be on the boundary of P'

Question: A cube can obviously be dissected via 8 smaller cubes into an inside-out cube. What is the least number of intermediate polyhedral pieces if we need to dissect a cube totally inside-out into another cube (assuming such a dissection can be done)?

Note: Same question can be asked reg inside-out / totally inside out dissections of a tetrahedron (regular or arbitrary) into a tetrahedron congruent to itself. Second reference above asks about dissecting a tet into some convex polyhedron.

Nandakumar R
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  • 20