Question

Carla is baking brownies for the school bake sale. The batter fills a pan that is 20 cm long by 16 cm wide by 4.4 cm deep.Then, she changes pans so that the new one is 20 by 20 by 5 cm deep. How far is the batter now from the top? Round to the nearest tenth.
Also, pleaseshow work. That way I can look at how the problem is solved. Thank you!

Answer 1

The volume of the first pan is (length x width x depth) =

                                               (20cm x 16cm x 4.4cm) = 1408 cm³ .

The batter fills it, so we know there is 1408 cm³ of batter.

Somehow, Carla manages to transfer every drop and smidgen of batter to
the new pan, leaving not a single drip of it in the first pan.  So we know that
there is 1408 cm³ of batter in the new pan.  It will spread out to fill the whole
length and width of the new pan, and we're to calculate how deep it will be.

                         (length x width x depth)  =  1408 cm³

                       (20cm x 20cm) x (depth)  =  1408 cm³

                                (400 cm²) x (depth)  =  1408 cm³

Divide each side by  400cm² :      depth  =  1408 cm³ / 400cm²

                                                               =  3.52 cm

Since the new pan is 5 cm deep, this works.  The batter doesn't
overfill it and glurb out over the top and all over the counter.

The question asked how far the batter is from the top of the pan.

The pan is        5 cm deep.
The batter is 3.52cm deep.

The batter comes up to (5 - 3.52) = 1.48 cm from the top of the pan.

Rounded to the nearest tenth of a cm, that's  1.5 cm  from the top.