Military Aptitude: How to Solve Cubes & Dice Problems

By Naveen Singh|Updated : August 31st, 2022

As we all know Dice is a part of the one of our popular indoor game since immemorial times. Presently, it is one of the interesting chapters of Reasoning and also included in the syllabus of AFCAT Military Aptitude. Now, let us discuss Dice in detail.

Dice is a three-dimensional figure in which there are 6 Surfaces, 12 Edges and 8 Corners. There are 4 adjacent surfaces to each surface.

byjusexamprep

Legend:

‘=’ represents Edges

‘→’ represents Surfaces

and, ‘●’ represents Corners

In the exam, two or more positions of a dice are given in a question and your task is to find out the opposite surface of a given surface.

Example:

byjusexamprep

From the above two positions of dice, it is clear that 2,3,4 and 5 are the adjacent surfaces of surface ‘1’. Therefore, we can say that the opposite surface of ‘1’ is surface ‘6’.

Types of Dice

I. Standard Dice: The dice in which the sum of two opposite surfaces is

equal to seven is considered as Standard Dice.

byjusexamprep

For Example:

In the above dice, 5,3 and 1 are adjacent surfaces and it is clear that the sum of any two surfaces shown in dice is not equal to seven.

Therefore, Surface opposite to ‘5’ is Surface ‘2’ (i.e 5+2=7)

The surface opposite to ‘3’ is Surface ‘4’ (i.e 3+4=7)

The surface opposite to ‘1’ is Surface ‘6’ (i.e 1+6=7)

II. General Dice: In General Dice, the sum of two opposite surfaces is not equal to seven. To find out the opposite surface we are required at least two positions of dice having:

(a) one surface common

byjusexamprep

Here, Surface ‘3’ is a common surface in both the positions of dice. After fixing ‘3’ and then moving in a clockwise direction we can easily find the opposite surfaces.

3 – 6 – 4

3 – 5 – 2

It is clear that 6 and 5 are opposite surfaces and, 4 and 2 are opposite surfaces. Therefore, the surface opposite of surface ‘3’ is surface ‘1’.

(b) Two surfaces common

byjusexamprep

In the above two positions of dice, two surfaces i.e Surface ‘3’ and Surface ‘2’ are common.

3 – 2 – 1

3 – 2 – 6

After fixing surfaces 3 and 2, we find that surface opposite of surface ‘1’ is surface ‘6’.

As we are not aware surface opposite of surface ‘3’ , it may be surface ‘4’ or surface ‘5’. Similarly, surface opposite of surface ‘2’ is not confirm, it may be surface ‘5’ or surface ‘ 4’.

byjusexamprep

III. Open Dice: In open dice, all the six surfaces are clearly shown. The opposite surfaces are at the alternate positions of rows or columns. For Example:

Here, opposite of surface ‘1’ is surface ‘4’

opposite of surface ‘3’ is surface ‘5

opposite of surface ‘2’ is surface ‘6’

byjusexamprep

Exploded Dice Problems

Some times in exams we are given an exploded form or expanded form of two or more positions of dice and we have to represent all the six surfaces in open dice.

For Example:

byjusexamprep

In the above two positions of dice common surface is ‘4’.

Always fix the common surface at the centre position.

byjusexamprep

From the first position:

byjusexamprep

i.e

From the second position:

i.e byjusexamprep

byjusexamprep

byjusexamprep

Clearly, blank surface will be filled by remaining number i.e ‘6’

Therefore, opposite surfaces are: 1↔ 2, 4 ↔ 6 and 3 ↔ 5.

we hope that this will help you clearing the Dice problems with ease.

More from us:

Important Study Notes for Defence Exams

Defence Specific Notes

Weekly Current Affairs

Current Affairs Quiz

SSB Interview Tips

Thanks

Comments

write a comment

Follow us for latest updates