Shriya Anand is a BA Honours Mathematics III year student from St. Stephens College, Delhi. This was written when she was a summer visitor to the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.

Consider the following problem: Mr. A has a cube whose faces he wants to paint either red or green. He wants to know how many such distinct coloured cubes he can make.

Now, since the cube has 6 faces, and he has 2 colours to choose from, the total number of possible coloured cubes is 2^6. But, painting the top face red and all the other faces green produces the same result (aesthetically speaking), as painting the bottom face red and all the other faces green. That is why Mr. A is so confused!

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