A rectangular piece of cardboard has dimensions 20cm by 36cm. Four squares each x cm by x cm are cut from the corners. An open box is formed by folding up the flaps. Find a function for V, which gives the volume of the box in terms of x, and state the domain for the function.
This is a very simple question! (Note: These are your gift questions in the methods exam 2)
First lets look at our cardboard,
its dimensions are 20cm x 36cm
we then cut four squares off each corner implying that our new dimensions are,
20-2x by 36-2x
Now imagine folding each of these parts up, you will get an rectangular box of
height (h) = x
length (l) = 36 - 2x
width (w) = 20 - 2x
Now we define the volume of the box (V) as,
V = h*l*w = x*(36-2x)*(20-2x) = x*2(18-x)*2(10-x) = 4x(18-x)(10-x)
Now get your graphics calculator (or even just sketch the graph) and look at the graph.
When x<0, V is negative and when 10<x<18, V is also negative.
Now you could potentially say that the domain can either be 0<x<10 or x>18 since we KNOW that you can't have negative volume, but, we also know that x can't be greater than 10cm since we would have no width to our box, it would just be a fold of paper.
So we can safely say that the domain is 0<x<10 or
)
(both are fine)
that answers your question,
we also can find the range where,
You may also be asked for the dimensions where the Volume is at its maximum, this is easy!
Just find the value of x when

, by the graphics calculator you will find that the value is x = 4.13cm,
So the height = 4.13cm
length = 36 - 2*4.13 = 27.74cm
width = 20 - 2*4.13 = 11.74cm