SOLUTION: Ok this is something related to my export business which ships to China. Here’s the question : If I have a shipping container (the kind you’ll see on a cargo ship) and the

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Question 1163232: Ok this is something related to my export business which ships to China.
Here’s the question :
If I have a shipping container (the kind you’ll see on a cargo ship) and the dimensions of the container are 20ft x 8ft x 8.6ft
Then how many of these can I fit in it:
Individual product dimensions:
4.4in x 6.3in x to 5.5in

Thank you in advance for any help with this !!



Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

One way to do this is through trial and error. First convert all the measurements in feet to inches. Multiply each measurement by 12 to do such a conversion.

20 feet = 240 inches
8 feet = 96 inches
8.6 feet = 103.2 inches

Form a table that has 240, 96 and 103.2 across the top row and 4.4, 6.3 and 5.5 along the left column like so


The idea with a table like this is to divide the stuff along the top row with items along the left column.
So we'll have 240/4.4 = 54.5454545454546 in row1,column1 of the table for instance
The other values are filled in the same way


Round each of those results down to the nearest whole number. We round down to ensure there is enough room


The values in the table represent the number of boxes we can place along a certain dimension depending on how you orient the box. The upper left corner of 54 represents the idea we can place 54 boxes along the 240 inch (20 ft) dimension, such that the 4.4 inch dimension is parallel to the 240 inch dimension. The other cells are read in a similar fashion.

There are 6 ways to place the boxes, and such six combos are shown below. The highlighted cells are multiplied out to get the total number of boxes

We see that the second table in the second column is the winner with the most boxes

Placing....
  • 38 boxes along the 240 inch (20 ft) dimension
  • 17 boxes along the 96 inch (8 ft) dimension
  • 23 boxes along the 103.2 inch (8.6 ft) dimension
leads to 38*17*23 = 14,858 boxes total, which is the maximum amount of boxes allowed.

Answer: At most 14,858 boxes

Note: this does not include any padding between the boxes. Also, this does not account for weight limits of any kind. It's quite possible that while you fit the volume requirements, you might have to go lower than 14,858 to fit either weight or any other safety requirements.