books in a crate?

by KK Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:20 pm

Here is what is mentioned in Geometry in SC Guide. Please let me know how to actually solve it.

Pg. 18 of SC Math(Geometry)

How many books each with a volume of 100 in^3, can be packed into a crate of volume of 5000 in^3. Both being 3 dimentional.

It is mentined that the dimentions of both books and the crate need to be mentioned so solve this questoin. Say if they are mentioned how do we further solve it?

Thanks

by **rfernandez** Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:53 am

Well, your approach would depend on the dimensions.

For example, suppose the books are all identical in their dimensions: 10x10x1. Also, suppose the crate's dimensions are 10x10x50. Well, then you can fit 50 books in there.

Now, keep the book's dimensions to 10x10x1 but change the crate's dimensions to 100x100x0.5. Now the answer is zero!

In short, there's no silver bullet method. In fact the two scenarios above assume all the books have the same size... not necessarily true!