Question

A rectangular box is 4 cm wide, 4 cm tall, and 10 cm long. What is the diameter of the smallest circular opening through which the box will fit? Round to the nearest tenth of a centimeter.

Answer 1

The diameter of the smallest circular opening through which the box will fit is 5.7 cm to the nearest tenth

Explanation:

The dimensions of the rectangle are :

height: 4 cm

length: 10 cm

breadth: 4 cm

The diameter of the smallest circular opening through which the box will fit will be equals to the diagonal of a face of the rectangular box.

The face we will try to fit in first will determine the diagonal that we will calculate.

Let us try to fit in the right side of the rectangular box. The face we will have at that side is a square of 4 cm by 4 cm which is formed by the height and the width of the box.

We can calculate the diagonal using Pythagoras Theorem:

diagonal =
`\sqrt{height^(2)+ breadth^(2)}= \sqrt{4^(2)+4^(2)}=5.657 \approx 5.7cm` to the nearest tenth