In: Math
Suppose you have a piece of cardboard with length 32 inches and width 20 inches and you want to use it to create a box. You would need to cut a square out of each corner of the cardboard so that you can fold the edges up. But what size square should you cut? Cutting a small square will make a shorter box. Cutting a large square will make a taller box.
Since we haven’t determined the size of the square to cut from each corner, let the side length of the square be represented by the variable x. Write a simplified polynomial expression in x and note the degree of the polynomial for each of the following geometric concepts:
The length of the base of the box once the corners are cut out, the width of the base of the box once the corners are cut out, the height of the box, the perimeter of the base of the box, the area of the base of the box, the volume of the box.