How do you find the volume of a prism if the width is x, height is 2x-1 and the length if 3x+4?

1 Answer
Dec 20, 2014

I'm assuming here that you mean a square prism:
mathsisfun.com

For every prism, the volume is given by the formula:
"Volume" = "Area" times "Length"
where "Area" is the area of the cross-section: the figure you would have if you were to slice a little piece off the prism.

In this case, the cross section is a rectangle. The area of a rectangle can be calculated by doing "height" times "width".

So, the formula for these kind of prisms becomes:
Volume = w*h*l
where w = "width", h = "height" and l = "length".

Entering your values into the formula:
x*(2x-1)*(3x+4)

You can bring the x inside the first parentheses:
(2x^2-x)*(3x+4)
And now, you can use FOIL.
6x^3 + 5x^2 - 4x

This is the volume.
I hope this is what you meant, and that it helped.