Folding Boxes

K-12: Materials at high school level.

Have you ever taken a close look at a pizza box? If you have, you will remember that the box was made out of a flat piece of cardboard.

Some pentominoes can be folded into a box. It will not have a top, because it will only have 5 sides. There are also some pentominoes that do not fold into a box at all.

The 12 pentominoes

In the table put an X in the column. For example: F does fold into a box, so we put an X in the first column. Cut out the shapes and fold them into a box to check your work.

Pentomino	Box	Not a box
F
X
I
L
N
P
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z