Question

A candy box is to be made out of a piece of cardboard that measures 8 by 12 inches. Squares of equal size will be cut out of each corner, and then the ends and sides will be folded up to form a rectangular box. What size square should be cut from each corner to obtain a maximum volume

Answer 1

Answer:

the size of the square to be cut out for maximum volume is 1.5695 inches

Explanation:

cardboard that measures 8 by 12 inches.

We need to determine What size square should be cut from each corner

We were given given the size of the cardboard.

let us denote the length of the square as 'x'.

Then our length, width and height will be:

Length = 8 − 2x

Width = 12− 2x

Then our Height = x

So now, the volume= length×width ×height

Volume = (8 − 2x) x (12− 2x) x (x)

After calculating volume comes out to be:

V = (96 − 40x + 4x²) (x)

V = 4x³ − 40x² + 96x

Now, we can use differentiation to equate it to zero.

So differentiate it with respect to x, we get

dV/dx = 12x² − 80x + 96

12x² − 80x + 96 = 0

So, after solving this, x comes out to be:

x = 5.097 and x = 1.5695

Looking at it the size of the square cut out cannot be 5.097 because we cannot cut out of both sides of the width, since the width is 5 inches.

Therefore, the size of the square to be cut out for maximum volume is 1.5695 inches.