Question

you are ordering packaging for a product. should you be more concerned with volume or surface area?

Answer 1

That's an interesting question, but it seems the answer would depend on what you're trying to maximize or minimize. Are you trying to maximize the volume given some constraints on total surface area? Or are you trying to minimize surface area given constraints on volume?

If we're talking about a rectangular prism, I've read before that of all the rectangular prism of a fixed surface area (like 1000 square inches), the cube will have maximum volume.

Or in reverse, of all the rectangular boxes that have some fixed volume (like 1000 cubic inches), the cube will have minimal surface area.