Suppose you are given a single unit square, and you would like to completely cover the surface of a cube by cutting up the square and pasting it onto the cube's surface. > <b>Q1</b>. What is the largest cube that can be covered by a $1 \times 1$ square when cut into at most $k$ pieces? The case $k=1$ has been studied, probably earlier than this reference: "Problem 10716: A cubical gift," *American Mathematical Monthly*, 108(1):81-82, January 2001, solution by Catalano-Johnson, Loeb, Beebee. <br /> <img src="http://cs.smith.edu/~orourke/MathOverflow/WrapCubeSquare.jpg" alt="Square Wrapping Cube" /><br /> (This was discussed in an <a href="http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/76660/">MSE Question</a>.) The depicted solution results in a cube edge length of $1/(2\sqrt{2}) \approx 0.35$. As $k \to \infty$, there should be no wasted overlaps in the covering of the 6 faces, and so the largest cube covered will have edge length $1/\sqrt{6} \approx 0.41$. What partition of the square leads to this optimal cover? > <b>Q2</b>. For which value of $k$ is this optimal reached? I have not found literature on this problem for $k>1$, but it seems likely it has been explored. Thanks for any pointers!