Question

Josie has 260 cubic centimeters of candle wax. She wants to make a hexagonal prism candle with a base area of 21 square centimeters and a height of 8 centimeters. She also wants to make a triangular prism candle with a height of 14 centimeters. Can the base area of the triangular prism candle be 7 square centimeters? Explain?

Answer 1

Volume can be expressed as the product of the area and the height. The allowable volume given would be 260 cm^3. The volumes of the hexagonal prism and the triangular prism should sum up to this value or lesser to enable Josie in making the candles she wants.

Volume of the hexagonal prism = 21 x 8 = 168 cm^2
Volume of the triangular prism = 14 x 7 = 98 cm^2
Adding up the calculated volumes,
168 + 98 = 266 cm^3

Therefore, the triangular prism cannot have a base area of 7 cm^2.