Question

An aquarium is designing a new exhibit to showcase clownfish and queen angelfish. The exhibit will hold a rectangular tank with length twice the size of the width, height is equal to 4 feet and total volume will equal to 500 cubic feet. What is a reasonable width of the tank to the nearest tenth of a foot?

Answer 1

The width of the tank is approximately 7.9 feet.

Explanation:

The pool is a rectangular prism with the following dimensions:

length = 2*x feet

width = x feet

height = 4 feet

With volume equal to 500 cubic feet, therefore:

volume = length*width*height = 500

(2*x)*(x)*(4) = 500

8*x² = 500

x = sqrt(500 / 8)

x = sqrt(62.5)

x = 7.90569 feet

The width of the tank is 7.9 feet.