Square Prism

Hactar & Luna, 2024-04-15

Master Nazir was working on a new puzzle, a novel cut of a square-pentagon duoprism, when he noticed Neophyte Sama standing awkwardly, as though she were waiting for something.

“Do you have a question for me?” Master Nazir asked, not bothering to look up from his dihedral angle calculations.

“Y- yes. Master, what is this shape? I did not know a 4-dimensional shape could be constructed only from cubes and pentagonal prisms.”

“You recognize cubes in this shape?”

“Are these cells not cubes? They appear to be cubes.”

Master Nazir stood up from his work and led the neophyte around the room. The puzzle workshop extended quite far in all directions, and several monks from other temples were working on other designs throughout.

He asked, “Is this room a cube?”

“It certainly appears to be, if the ceiling is as tall as the length of the wall.”

“Are you able to measure it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I cannot walk on the wall.”

“And yet you walk on the floor.”

At that moment, Sama was enlightened.