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A rectangular prism has dimensions of 2½ and 7/2 in. Determine the edge length of the largest unit cube that you could use to pack the prism. Explain.

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Final answer:

The largest unit cube that can pack a rectangular prism with dimensions of 2½ in. and 7/2 in. has an edge length of 0.5 in.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the edge length of the largest unit cube that can be used to pack the given rectangular prism with dimensions of 2½ in. and 7/2 in., we need to find the greatest common divisor that can fit evenly into both dimensions.

In this case, since 7/2 can be simplified to 3.5 in., and 2½ in. can be expressed as 2.5 in., the largest cube that fits into both dimensions will be a cube with an edge length of 0.5 in., which is the largest fraction common to both dimensions.

User Mike Hamer
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