Doing your block

Layered cube shape made up of layers of five dfferent coloured cubes of increasing size, each larger cube surrounds the previous cube on the rear two sides and the bottom. The smallest cube is white. The next layer of the cube, surrounding the white cube, is green. The next layer of the cube is yellow. The fourth layer of the cube is blue. And the outermost layer of the cube is red.

Image credit: John West

Prompts

Assume that each 'layer' of this cube is made up of smaller cubes of the same colour, and that the white cube has a volume of one unit.

How many green cubes are needed?

How many yellow cubes are needed?

How many blue cubes are needed?

How many red cubes are needed?

What do you know about the total number of white, green, yellow, blue and red cubes?

How many additional cubes would be needed to enclose the white cube at the centre?

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