This task is from Tools 4 NC Teachers. Students consider ways to organize rectangular prisms into different sizes of moving trucks. This is remixable.

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Ms. Webb is switching schools and needs to pack up her classroom.  She has decided to rent a moving truck so that she can move her boxes in one trip.  All of the trucks are 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall, but the trucks have different lengths.  The choices of lengths are 10 feet, 14 feet, 17 feet, 20 feet, 24 feet, and 26 feet.  Find the volume of each truck to determine how much it can hold.

Ms. Webb stacked all of her boxes into a pile that is 12 feet wide, 7 feet long, and 3 feet high. Which truck should she rent?

Ms. Bradley is also switching schools.  She and Ms. Webb are thinking about renting a truck together.  If Ms. Bradley’s stack of boxes is 9 feet wide, 11 feet long, and 4 feet high, which truck would the two teachers have to rent in order to hold all their boxes?