Hi guzzlers.

For today’s puzzle, let me introduce you to the Menger sponge, a fascinating object first described by the Austrian mathematician Karl Menger in 1926. We’ll get to the problem as soon as I explain what the object is.

The Menger sponge is a cube with smaller cubes extracted from it, and is constructed as follows: Step A: Take a cube. Step B: Divide it into 27 smaller ‘subcubes’, so it looks just like a Rubik’s cube.

Step C: Remove the middle subcube in each side as well as the subcube at the centre of the cube, so if you looked through any hole you would see right through it. Step D: Repeat steps A to C for each of the remaining subcubes, that is, imagine that each subcube is made from 27 even smaller cubes and remove the middle one in each side and the central one.

We could carry on repeating steps A to C ad infinitum, on smaller and smaller subcubes, but here let’s do it just once more:

Menger sponge. Illustration: Edmund Harriss/Visions of Numberland

Menger sponges are so loved within the maths community that building origami models of them out of business cards is a thing.

Menger sponge made as part of Matt Parker and Laura Taalman’s MegaMenger project.

There are lots* of reasons why Menger sponges are cool and one of them is illustrated by today’s puzzle.

How to slice a cube in two.

On the left here is how you slice a cube in half such that the cross section is a hexagon.

When you slice a Menger sponge in two like this, what does the hexagonal slice look like?

This question is probably the most difficult one I have ever set in this column, as it requires phenomenal levels of spatial intuition. But I urge you to give it a go, even if just a basic sketch. Send me some images, or post them to me on social media. You may draw something along the right lines...

Please forgive me, though, for posing this toughie. The answer is jaw-droppingly amazing. In fact, I was told about the ‘Menger slice’ by a respected geometer who told me it gave him probably his biggest “wow” moment in maths. Come back at 5pm BST and see for yourself.

NO SPOILERS PLEASE! Please talk about Karl Menger and origami instead.

Photograph: Bloomsbury

Both the Menger sponge and the Menger slice are included in my latest book, Visions of Numberland: A Colouring Journey Through the Mysteries of Maths. The book is a gallery of the most spectacular images that Edmund Harriss, my co-author, and I could find in maths. You can colour them in, or just contemplate them in black and white.

I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. Send me your email if you want me to alert you each time I post a new one.

I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.

* Here are a couple. 1) Each time you follow the iteration described in steps A to C you decrease the volume of the sponge, but increase its surface area. After an infinite number of iterations, you will have removed an infinite number of cubes. The sponge will then have zero volume and infinite surface area. 2) After an infinite number of iterations, the object is a fractal, that is, it contains parts that are identical to the whole thing.