Question

1. A movie theater designs two bags to hold 96 cubic inches of popcorn. a. Find the height of each bag b. Which bag should the theater choose to reduce the amount of paper needed? Explain.

Answer 1

I have attached a screenshot with the images of the two popcorn bags used by the theater.

Part (a):
Bag A:
Volume of bag = area of base * height
Volume of bag = length * width * height
We have:
volume = 96 in³
length = 3 in
width = 4 in
Therefore:
96 = 3 * 4 * height
96 = 12 * height
height of bag A = 8 in
Bag B:
Volume of bag = area of base * height
Volume of bag = length * width * height
We have:
volume = 96 in³
length = 4 in
width = 4 in
Therefore:
96 = 4 * 4 * height
96 = 16 * height
height of bag B = 6 in

Part (b):
To determine the amount of paper needed, we will need to calculate the surface of each bag. Excluding the top base, each bag will have 5 faces. Four side faces (each two opposite are equal) and the base.
Bag A:
Surface area = area of base + 2*area of front face + 2*area of side face
Surface area = (3*4) + 2(8*4) + 2(8*3) 
Surface area = 12 + 64 + 48 
Surface area of bag A = 124 in²
Bag B:
Surface area = area of base + 2*area of front face + 2*area of side face
Surface area = (4*4) + 2(6*4) + 2(6*4) 
Surface area = 16 + 48 + 48 
Surface area of bag B = 112 in²
From the above calculations, we can deduce that the theater should choose bag B in order to reduce the amount of paper needed.

Hope this helps :)