The idea in brief. Opposite is a relationship on the folded cube, not a distance on the flat paper. A face touches four other faces along edges and has exactly one opposite face. In the lesson. The opposite face is the one cube face that does not touch.
Lesson video, with the working
Nets of a cube
4 min 04 s
The film teaches 2 questions in turn. Each question shows first; its working is written as the film explains it.
The figure below shows the net of a cube. Its six faces are lettered J, K, L, M, N and P. When the net is folded to make the cube, which face is directly opposite face L?
Face K is directly opposite face L.
Ans: Face K
Example 1
Each of the four figures below is a net of a cube, and two squares are shaded in each one. In which net do the two shaded squares end up on opposite faces of the cube?
In Net C, the shaded squares are on opposite faces.
Ans: Net C
How to solve it
Pick the face you want the opposite of, and keep it still. Here it is face L.
List the faces that share an edge with it: J, M, N and P. Every face of a cube shares an edge with 4 faces.
The one face left never touches it, so it is the opposite face. Face K is opposite face L.
Number the 4 squares in the row 1, 2, 3 and 4. Squares 1 and 3 are opposite, and so are 2 and 4.
Squares that share an edge on the cube are not opposite: square 4 comes round beside square 1.
On the cube, those two faces have no edge between them. The opposite face is the one cube face that does not touch.
Practice questions with worked solutions
Question 1 is free to try. The other 5 open in the free trial, each with its full working.
Question 1 of 6 · Basic · free to tryThe figure below shows a pyramid. Its bottom face is a square, and all its…The figure below shows a…
The figure below shows a pyramid. Its bottom face is a square, and all its other faces are triangles that meet at one point at the top. How many faces does the pyramid have altogether?
one triangle stands on each side, so triangular faces = 4
faces = 4 + 1 = 5
Answer: 5
For parents
How do you work out nets of a cube questions in P6?
A net is the flat shape that folds up into a solid.
What your child learns here
A net is the flat shape that folds up into a solid. This page is about deciding whether six squares fold into a cube, which faces end up opposite each other, and how a cuboid's net is built from pairs of rectangles. Nets are first met in earlier years, and these questions reuse that outcome in a harder P6 form.
Know that a cube's net has 6 squares, and that the arrangement, not the count, decides whether it folds.
Find the face opposite a given face: in a straight row of squares, the 1st and 3rd are opposite, and so are the 2nd and 4th.
Know that a row of 5 squares cannot fold into a cube.
Read a cuboid's net as three pairs of matching rectangles, and find its total area from all six faces.
Use the fact that opposite faces on a standard dice add up to 7.
Does the answer make sense?
When two faces are named as opposite, they cannot be squares sitting side by side in the net, since those meet along an edge once folded. A cube's net always has exactly 6 squares, and your child can check that a cuboid's total area is made of three matching pairs of faces.
How to practise these questions
Basic questions train recognising which arrangements of squares fold into a cube. Intermediate questions add finding opposite faces of a cube on a flat net. Challenge questions use nets of cuboids, extra squares, edge counts, and folding several nets mentally. When a net will not fold in your child's head, read the written step-by-step solution.
Questions parents ask
How can I tell if a net will fold into a cube? It needs exactly 6 squares, no row of more than 4, and no two squares that would fold onto the same face. Cutting it out and folding is the surest test while your child builds the picture in their head.
Which faces are opposite on a cube net? In a straight row of squares, faces with one square between them are opposite. For any other face, list the four faces it shares an edge with; the one face left over is opposite.
Are nets taught in Primary 6? Nets are in the MOE Primary 4 syllabus: identifying the nets of a cube, cuboid, prism and pyramid, and the solid a net folds into. The questions on this page build on that knowledge.
