Start with 27 small cubes. Now put them together to make one larger cube. Without touching the sides of the larger cube, remove the cube in the middle to leave 26.

(Note: No one may touch the outer cubes or in any way do anything that would move or change them)

(1)
... but if we're allowed to work in four dimensions, this becomes trivial.
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(2)
I read the problem to indicate the larger cube must be 3x3x3. But if the larger cube is allowed to be 2x2x2, for example, then we can shuffle the cubes near each other, and leave 13 on one side, 13 (including the larger cube) on the other side... and one cube in the middle.... then removing that one cube solves the riddle.

Posted by SilverKnight on 2003-10-24 16:15:17