A cube has 4 edges on the front square face, 4 edges on the back square face, and 4 edges connecting the corners of the front square face to the corners of the back square face.That's 12 faces. So since the sum of all 12 edges is 36, each edge is 36/12 or 3. The volume of a cube is the length of an edge raised to the third power. [That's why they call raising to the third power "CUBING"]. Volume = (edge)3 = 33 = 27. Look at the picture, There are 9 1x1x1 cubes in the front, 9 in the middle, and 9 in the back. That's a volume of 27 small 1x1 cubes. Edwin