Sometimes you might know the volume of a rectangular prism, but you're asked to find the width, length, or height of the prism.
Here's how these problems are set up:
- You know the volume.
- You know two out of the three dimensions.
- You have to solve for the missing dimension.
For example, you know the height and the width, but not the length. Let's take a look at this prism.
The volume is 60 cubic units. And we know that the height is 5 units and the width is 2 units. We don't know the length and need to find it. We can set up an equation.
| V | = | lwh |
| 60 | = | (l)(5)(2) |
| 60 | = | 10l |
| \(\mathsf{ \frac{60}{10} }\) | = | l |
| 6 | = | l |
So the missing dimension is 6 units.
