Use the image to answer the question.
An illustration shows a rectangular prism made of cubes placed as 3 columns, 2 cubes high and 2 cubes deep.
A right rectangular prism is made up of 12 cubes that are 1/2 -inch on each side. Use the cube method or the formula method to find the volume. Provide your answer as an improper fraction reduced to the lowest terms.
Using the cube method, we can see that the rectangular prism is made up of 3 layers of 4 cubes each. Therefore, the volume of the rectangular prism is 3 x 4 = 12 cubic units.
Using the formula method, the volume of a rectangular prism is given by the formula V = l x w x h, where l is the length, w is the width, and h is the height.
Given that each cube has a side length of 1/2 inch, the length of the rectangular prism is 2 cubes (1 inch), the width is 2 cubes (1 inch), and the height is 3 cubes (1.5 inches).
Therefore, the volume of the rectangular prism is V = 2 x 1 x 1 x 1.5 = 3 cubic units.
So, the volume of the rectangular prism made of 12 cubes is 3 cubic units, which is equivalent to the improper fraction 3/1.