Shane takes a big cube of butter with side length x from the fridge. He then cuts out a little cube of side length y from one of the corners of the cube.
Write an expression that describes the remaining volume of butter.
x^3 - y^3
x to the third power - y to the third power
To write an expression that describes the remaining volume of butter, we need to calculate the volume of the big cube and subtract the volume of the little cube cut from it.
The volume of a cube is calculated by multiplying the length of one side raised to the power of 3. Therefore, the volume of the big cube is given by:
Volume of big cube = x^3
Next, we need to calculate the volume of the little cube that was cut out. The side length of the little cube is y, so the volume of the little cube is:
Volume of little cube = y^3
To find the remaining volume of butter, we subtract the volume of the little cube from the volume of the big cube:
Remaining volume of butter = Volume of big cube - Volume of little cube
= x^3 - y^3
Therefore, the expression that describes the remaining volume of butter is (x^3 - y^3).