SOLUTION: I am studying surface area and am totally stuck. My problem reads: "A rectangular metal container with an open top is fabricated from 0.072-inch think aluminum sheet. The contain

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Question 172526: I am studying surface area and am totally stuck.
My problem reads: "A rectangular metal container with an open top is fabricated from 0.072-inch think aluminum sheet. The container is 18.00 inches wide, 25.00 inches long, and 23.00 inches high. The aluminum sheet weighs 1.045 pounds per square foot. Find the total weight of the container."
I know how to get the lateral area (which would be 1,978 square inches) and the surface area (which would be 2,428 square inches), but I do not know how to go about finding the weight from the information I have. I tried multiplying the surface area by the the thickness of the metal, but that made cubic units and I need square feet. What do I do to find the answer to this problem?
Found 2 solutions by Mathtut, josmiceli:
Answer by Mathtut(3670) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
2428 gives you the entire area of aluminum....but it gives it in sq in.....you must convert to sq ft....there are 144 sq in to the square foot.....so you must divide by 144 to get sq ft.......thickness really doesnt matter since we are given the weight at 1.045 pounds per sq ft. because the thickness is part of that weight figure
:
2428/144=16.86 sq ft
:
pounds

Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The problem gives weight in pounds/ft2. That means they are taking into
account the thickness, and you only have to be concerned with
the area in ft2. To convert in2 to ft2: (in2)(1 ft2/144 in2)
The .072 in thickness is useless data in this problem