An open box is made from a 10cm by 20cm Piece of Tin by cutting a square from each corner and folding the edges. The area of the resulting base is 96 cm2. What is the length of the sides of the squares?

2 cm

Step-by-step explanation:

If x is the length of the sides of the squares, then the height of the box is also x.  The length and width of the base are 10−2x and 20−2x.  The area of the base is the length times the width.

96 = (10 − 2x) (20 − 2x)

96 = 200 − 20x − 40x + 4x²

0 = 4x² − 60x + 104

0 = x² − 15x + 26

0 = (x − 2) (x − 13)

x = 2 or 13

Since x < 5, x = 2.

So the length of the sides of the squares is 2 cm.

50

step-by-step explanation: