# What does this shape look like?

I have here a three dimensional, solid object. Its sides are flat planes. In the following views, all lines are shown — there are no hidden edges.

From the front, this shape looks like:

From above (at a 90° angle from the previous view), this shape looks like:

What would this shape look like from the side?

• Is it all connected, or could it be a cube within a cube? – Rand al'Thor Dec 2 '14 at 12:19
• I'm afraid there may be multiple solutions. The simplest, I think, is an L-shape: two flat squares with a square hole in them connected on one side. – oerkelens Dec 2 '14 at 12:23
• @oerkelens Perhaps I didn't state clearly enough that it's a solid shape; I've edited the question. – SQB Dec 4 '14 at 11:10

Take a large cube. Extract a smaller cube exactly centered in the large cube. You get a hollow cube. Then cut the large cube along a diagonal (i.e. along a plane that contains 2 opposite edges). And put back the small cube.

I don't have the tools right now to produce a correct image. Here is what it looks like from the side.

   ____ /|
|   /  |
| /    |
/      |
--------'


(Image provided by OP)

• You made am assumption that the center square must be elevated, it could be cut off from the surface instead – Ayyash Dec 2 '14 at 15:45
• I know, this is one of multiple solutions. But I didn't want to draw the dotted lines :-). – Florian F Dec 2 '14 at 16:03
• @FlorianF Acutally, I know only of two possible solutions - yours, and its complement, with the smaller cube left out (following your method of construction). Together they form the larger cube you started with. – SQB Dec 4 '14 at 11:12
• There are other solutions with curved surfaces. – Florian F Dec 4 '14 at 12:26

Could it be a cube missing its middle? Basically, if you drilled a square hole through a cube in all 3 directions, you'd have a cube with square shaped holes.

• No, because then you'd have hidden edges: the sides of the holes up to the point where they intersect the other holes. – SQB Dec 3 '14 at 11:43

It will be a plane square. Since there won't be any cavity on the sides.

There are two possibilities for all six sides of the 3D object

Possibility 1

Possibility 2

So, in both cases

the side will be perfect square without any cavity.

Note:From the description and images in the question, it doesn't state that the sides too have cavity, also no info about the dept of the cavity on front and top. So I considered the object with maximum volume.

• If those smaller squares were cavities, you'd see the sides of them as hidden edges. – SQB Dec 3 '14 at 11:44
• Yes, this is a much better answer. The OP assumed the answer he'she was looking for. This is a much more complete alternative. The shape could be almost anything if the sides are just squares. – ThePopMachine Dec 4 '14 at 15:29

My guess is that it is a:

Alternatively it might even be:

tesseract projected in 3D (I assume internal edges are not visible).