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A rectangular prism has a length of 10 in., a width of 2 in., and a height of 312 in. the prism is filled with cubes that have edge lengths of 12 in. how many cubes are needed to fill the rectangular prism? enter your answer in the box. to fill the rectangular prism, cubes are needed.

User Bharatesh
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1 Answer

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Explanation:

that is a strange question. you will see in a moment why.

I suspect your teacher just wants to do the exercise to have a large volume and then see how often a small volume fits into that large volume.

we can do that quickly:

large volume = 10×2×312 = 6240 in³

small (cube) volume = 12×12×12 = 1728 in³

so, we could put 6240/1728 = 3.611111111... cubes into a volume as the prism has.

now why did I phrase this so strangely ?

because the prism not only has volume but also a shape.

it is a narrow but high container with the small dimensions being 10 in and 2 in.

the cubes have a side (or edge) length of 12 in. that is not compatible with the 10 in and 2 in cubes of the prism.

not a single one cube would fit into the prism.

so, the realistic answer is : 0 cubes.

if it does not matter that the cubes would stand out of the prism, we could simply stack a single file of cubes along the height of the prism :

312/12 = 26 cubes.

so, we could stack 26 cubes inside the height of the prism.

so, I conclude, this is either a trick question (and 0 is the true answer), or there is a mistake in the question.

possibly in the dimensions of either the prism or the cubes.

for example, let's assume the cubes have an actual side length of 2 in (and not 12 in).

then the small (cube) volume is : 2×2×2 = 8 in³

and they will fit into the prism also shape wise.

6240/8 = 780 cubes

so, we would need 780 cubes of that size to fill the prism.

or, as another example, the cubes have a side length of 1/2 in.

then the small (cube) volume = 1/2³ = 1/8 in³

6240/(1/8) = 6240 × 8 = 49,920 cubes

in that case we would need 49,920 cubes to fill the prism.

User Smit Bhanvadia
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