Solid Geometry - GRE Quantitative Reasoning

The diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

To begin, the best thing to do is to find the length of a side of the cube. This is done using the formula for the surface area of a cube. Recall that a cube is made up of squares. Therefore, its surface area is:

, where is the length of a side.

Therefore, for our data, we have:

Solving for , we get:

This means that

Now, the diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

First, we must ascertain the length of each side. Based on our initial data, we know that the 6 faces of the cube will have a surface area of 6x2. This yields the equation:

6x2 = 486, which simplifies to: x2 = 81; x = 9.

Therefore, each side has a length of 9. Imagine the cube is centered on the origin. This means its "front-left-bottom corner" will be at (–4.5, –4.5, 4.5) and its "rear-right-top corner" will be at (4.5, 4.5, –4.5). To find the distance between these, we use the three-dimensional distance formula:

d = √((x1 – x2)2 + (y1 – y2)2 + (z1 – z2)2)

For our data, this will be:

√( (–4.5 – 4.5)2 + (–4.5 – 4.5)2 + (4.5 + 4.5)2) =

√( (–9)2 + (–9)2 + (9)2) = √(81 + 81 + 81) = √(243) =

√(3 * 81) = √(3) * √(81) = 9√(3)

The shortest length between any two non-adjacent corners will be the diagonal of the smallest face of the rectangular box. The smallest face of the rectangular box is a six-inch by six-inch square. The diagonal of a six-inch square is .

The diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

To begin, the best thing to do is to find the length of a side of the cube. This is done using the formula for the surface area of a cube. Recall that a cube is made up of squares. Therefore, its surface area is:

, where is the length of a side.

Therefore, for our data, we have:

Solving for , we get:

This means that

Now, the diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

First, we must ascertain the length of each side. Based on our initial data, we know that the 6 faces of the cube will have a surface area of 6x2. This yields the equation:

6x2 = 486, which simplifies to: x2 = 81; x = 9.

Therefore, each side has a length of 9. Imagine the cube is centered on the origin. This means its "front-left-bottom corner" will be at (–4.5, –4.5, 4.5) and its "rear-right-top corner" will be at (4.5, 4.5, –4.5). To find the distance between these, we use the three-dimensional distance formula:

d = √((x1 – x2)2 + (y1 – y2)2 + (z1 – z2)2)

For our data, this will be:

√( (–4.5 – 4.5)2 + (–4.5 – 4.5)2 + (4.5 + 4.5)2) =

√( (–9)2 + (–9)2 + (9)2) = √(81 + 81 + 81) = √(243) =

√(3 * 81) = √(3) * √(81) = 9√(3)

The shortest length between any two non-adjacent corners will be the diagonal of the smallest face of the rectangular box. The smallest face of the rectangular box is a six-inch by six-inch square. The diagonal of a six-inch square is .

The diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

To begin, the best thing to do is to find the length of a side of the cube. This is done using the formula for the surface area of a cube. Recall that a cube is made up of squares. Therefore, its surface area is:

, where is the length of a side.

Therefore, for our data, we have:

Solving for , we get:

This means that

Now, the diagonal length of a cube is found by a form of the distance formula that is akin to the Pythagorean Theorem, though with an additional dimension added to it. It is:

, or , or

Now, if the the value of is , we get simply

The surface area of a sphere is defined by the equation:

For our data, this means:

Solving for , we get:

or

The diameter of the sphere is .

Do not assume that the diameter will be half of the diameter of a sphere with volume of . Instead, begin with the sphere with a volume of . Such a simple action will prevent a vexing error!

Thus, we know from our equation for the volume of a sphere that:

Solving for , we get:

If you take the cube-root of both sides, you have:

First, you can factor out an :

Next, factor the :

Which simplifies to:

Thus, the diameter is double that or:

The surface area of a sphere is defined by the equation:

For our data, this means:

Solving for , we get:

or

The diameter of the sphere is .

Do not assume that the diameter will be half of the diameter of a sphere with volume of . Instead, begin with the sphere with a volume of . Such a simple action will prevent a vexing error!

Thus, we know from our equation for the volume of a sphere that:

Solving for , we get:

If you take the cube-root of both sides, you have:

First, you can factor out an :

Next, factor the :

Which simplifies to:

Thus, the diameter is double that or:

The surface area of a sphere is defined by the equation:

For our data, this means:

Solving for , we get:

or

The diameter of the sphere is .

Do not assume that the diameter will be half of the diameter of a sphere with volume of . Instead, begin with the sphere with a volume of . Such a simple action will prevent a vexing error!

Thus, we know from our equation for the volume of a sphere that:

Solving for , we get:

If you take the cube-root of both sides, you have:

First, you can factor out an :

Next, factor the :

Which simplifies to:

Thus, the diameter is double that or:

Recall that the equation for the volume of a cube is:

Since the sides of a cube are merely squares, the surface area equation is just times the area of one of those squares:

So, for our two quantities:

Quantity A

Use your calculator to estimate this value (since you will not have a square root key). This is .

Quantity B

First divide by :

Therefore,

Therefore, the two quantities are equal.

The surface area of a cube is made up of squares. Therefore, the equation is merely times the area of one of those squares. Since the sides of a square are equal, this is:

, where is the length of one side of the square.

For our data, we know:

This means that:

Now, while you will not have a calculator with a square root key, you do know that . (You can always use your calculator to test values like this.) Therefore, we know that . This is the length of one side

There are 6 sides to a cube. If the total surface area is 54 square inches, then each face must have an area of 9 square inches.

Every face of a cube is a square, so if the area is 9 square inches, each edge must be 3 inches.