Final answer:
The student's question regards calculating the cost of materials to build a rectangular box with a square base, using the given price per square foot and the box's volume.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question involves finding the cost to build a box with a volume of 517 cubic feet, considering the box has a square base and top.
With a cost of $1.50 per square foot for the materials, we need to determine the surface area of the box to calculate the total cost.
To find the surface area, one would first determine the dimensions of the box by finding the length of the sides of the square base (since the base is square, all four sides are of equal length) and the height of the box.
Once the dimensions are known, the surface area can be found by adding the area of the base and top (which will be the same) to the area of the four sides of the rectangle (2 times the length multiplied by the height, plus 2 times the width multiplied by the height).