Question

A laundry soap company decides it wants to shrink the size of its box to save on cost. The surface area of the original box is 112 cm2
112
cm
2
. If it creates a new box using a scale factor of 34
3
4
, determine the surface area of the new box. Round to the nearest tenth if necessary.

Answer 1

When linear dimensions are scaled by k, surface area is multiplied by k^2. If the scale factor is 3/4, then

new surface area = 112 × (3/4)^2 = 112 × 9/16 = 63 cm^2.

(If you meant a different scale factor, tell me and I’ll recompute.)