A pizza bx with a square base is to be made from a rectangular sheet of cardboard by cutting six 1-inch square from the corners and the middle sections and folding up the sides. If the area of the base is to be 144 in^2, what size piece of cardboard should be used?

Please explain the process; I am way off.

I answered this same question for you this morning

http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1358072908

What part of it did you not like ?