Tommy and Cole are planning to build an aquarium for

their pet fish. If the dimensions of the aquarium are 17
inches long, 9 inches wide, and 11 inches tall, how
much glass do they need to buy to enclose the
aquarium?

1 answer

To find out how much glass they need to buy to enclose the aquarium, we need to calculate the surface area of the aquarium.

The aquarium has 6 faces: top, bottom, front, back, left side, and right side.

- The top and bottom faces have the same dimensions: 17 inches long by 9 inches wide, so each of them has an area of 17 * 9 = 153 square inches.

- The front and back faces have dimensions of 17 inches long by 11 inches tall, so each of them has an area of 17 * 11 = 187 square inches.

- The left and right side faces have dimensions of 9 inches wide by 11 inches tall, so each of them has an area of 9 * 11 = 99 square inches.

Therefore, the total surface area of the aquarium is:
2(153) + 2(187) + 2(99) = 306 + 374 + 198 = 878 square inches.

So Tommy and Cole need to buy 878 square inches of glass to enclose the aquarium.