AMC10 2007 10A, Problem 21

A sphere is inscribed in a cube that has a surface area of $24$ square meters. A second cube is then inscribed within the sphere. What is the surface area in square meters of the inner cube?

Solution: [asy] import three; draw(((0,0,0)--(0,1,0)--(1,1,0)--(1,0,0)--(0,0,0))^^((0,0,1)--(0,1,1)--(1,1,1)--(1,0,1)--(0,0,1))^^((0,0,0)--(0,0,1))^^((0,1,0)--(0,1,1))^^((1,1,0)--(1,1,1))^^((1,0,0)--(1,0,1))); draw(shift((0.5,0.5,0.5))*scale3(1/sqrt(3))*shift((-0.5,-0.5,-0.5))*rotate(aTan(sqrt(2)),(0,0,0.5),(1,1,0.5))*(((0,0,0)--(0,1,0)--(1,1,0)--(1,0,0)--(0,0,0))^^((0,0,1)--(0,1,1)--(1,1,1)--(1,0,1)--(0,0,1))^^((0,0,0)--(0,0,1))^^((0,1,0)--(0,1,1))^^((1,1,0)--(1,1,1))^^((1,0,0)--(1,0,1)))); dot((0.5,0.5,1)^^(0.5,0.5,0)); [/asy] We rotate the smaller cube around the sphere such that two opposite vertices of the cube are on opposite faces of the larger cube. Thus the main diagonal of the smaller cube is the side length of the outer square. Let $S$ be the surface area of the inner square. The ratio of the areas of two similar figures is equal to the square of the ratio of their sides. As the diagonal of a cube has length $s\sqrt{3}$ where $s$ is a side of the cube, the ratio of a side of the inner square to a side of the outer square is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$  (since the side of the outer square = the diagonal of the inner square). So we have $\frac{S}{24} = \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\right)^2$. Thus $S = 8\Rightarrow \mathrm{\fbox{8}}$.

Answer: 8