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Geometry Difficulty 3.2 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

What is the volume of a cube whose surface area is twice that of a cube with volume 1?

Pick one

Solution

A cube with volume 11 has a side of length 13=1\sqrt[3]{1}=1 and thus a surface area of 612=66 \cdot 1^2=6.
A cube whose surface area is 62=126\cdot2=12 has a side of length 126=2\sqrt{\frac{12}{6}}=\sqrt{2} and a volume of (2)3=22(C)(\sqrt{2})^3=2\sqrt{2}\Rightarrow\mathrm{(C)}.

Alternatively, we can use the fact that the surface area of a cube is directly proportional to the square of its side length. Therefore, if the surface area of a cube increases by a factor of 22, its side length must increase by a factor of 2\sqrt{2}, meaning the new side length of the cube is 12=21 * \sqrt{2} = \sqrt{2}. So, its volume is (2)3=22(C)({\sqrt{2}})^3 = 2\sqrt{2} \Rightarrow\mathrm{(C)}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.