Question

I have no idea how to answer this...

"A box is to be formed by cutting square pieces out of the corner of a rectangular piece of a 3" x 5" notecard as shown below (in comments). The sides are then folded up to form a box.

A. Write the function that expresses the area of the bottom of the box as a function of the length of the side of one of the square pieces.

B. How large should x be in order for the area of the bottom of the box to equal 10in^2? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth."

Answer 1

ok so how would you right the area of the square as it is now?, ie without any cut out peices

Answer 2

The area is b*h so it would be 15in.^2?

Answer 3

ok so think of just on of the sides, lets take the 5" side. if i have any section cut into it and the section is always x what is the length of this side?

Remember you always have two notches cut into each length

Answer 4

Oh god that confused me, I have no idea

Answer 5

right so one side is 5" but if you cut two notches each with a length x out of them what would be the length of the 5" side now?
as an equation just the length