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Random unit cube from a painted 5x5x5 block

Question

The outside of a 5×5×55\times5\times5 cube is painted red, and the cube is then sawn into 125125 unit cubes. You choose one of the small cubes uniformly at random and roll it like a die. What is the probability that the face landing on top is red?

Short answer

1/51/5. The painted faces total 6⋅52=1506\cdot5^2=150, out of 6⋅125=7506\cdot125=750 small-cube faces in all, and the top face is a uniform choice among them. That gives 150750=15\tfrac{150}{750}=\tfrac15.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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