1 1/3
2/3
1
You find the volume of the right rectangular prism using the formula method and want to check your answer using the cube method. What is the edge length of the cubes you will use? Lengths are given in inches. Provide your answer as a fraction reduced to the lowest terms.
The cube method involves filling the rectangular prism with cubes, so the edge length of each cube must be a common factor of the length, width, and height of the prism. To find the common factor, we can simplify each dimension to the lowest terms:
1 1/3 = 4/3
2/3 = 2/3
1 = 3/3
So the dimensions of the rectangular prism, in lowest terms, are:
4/3 x 2/3 x 3/3
To find the common factor, we can look for the greatest common divisor (GCD) of the numerator and denominator of each dimension:
GCD(4, 3) = 1
GCD(2, 3) = 1
GCD(3, 3) = 3
The GCD of the three dimensions is 1 x 1 x 3 = 3. So the edge length of the cubes we will use is 1/3 of an inch.