Math Puzzle No. 4: The Hungry Mouse
Imagine a block of cheese has been cut into thirds along each face. A friendly neighborhood mouse comes along and starts eating one of the corners. The mouse will eat the entire block of cheese, always progressing to an adjacent cube using only up, down, or cardinal directions (North, South, East, West; sorry, no diagonals!). Challenge: Can you find a path following these rules so that our mouse friend finishes by eating the center cube of cheese last? Hint: A diagram showing the block cut into cubes -- and another showing the faces made up of cubes --- may help you visualize the problem. Update: 1/25/21: read below for the solution.