A Study on The Application of Inclusion-Exclusion Method in Soma Cube Activity
Sang Kil Shim, Sunwook Hwang · The Mathematical Education · 2009
The purpose of this article is to study characteristics of Soma Cube in combinatorial-geometric point of view, and to present basic substances and direction for efficient Soma cube activities in school mathematics upon systematical analysis of methods of finding solutions using Inclusion-Exclusion Method. We can apply Inclusion-Exclusion Method to find all possible solutions in Soma Cube activities not as trial-and-error method but as analytical method. Because Inclusion-Exclusion Method can reduce the number of problem-solving variables by making high conjunction in the choice of pieces. Soma cube pieces can be sorted as 'flat' ones and 'non-flat' ones, which would be another effective method in the manipulation of Soma Cube pieces.