2020 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 10

The following problem is from both the 2020 AMC 12A #7 and 2020 AMC 10A #10, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem 10

Seven cubes, whose volumes are $1$ , $8$ , $27$ , $64$ , $125$ , $216$ , and $343$ cubic units, are stacked vertically to form a tower in which the volumes of the cubes decrease from bottom to top. Except for the bottom cube, the bottom face of each cube lies completely on top of the cube below it. What is the total surface area of the tower (including the bottom) in square units?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 644\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 658\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 664\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 720\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 749$

Solution

The volume of each cube follows the pattern of $n^3$ ascending, for $n$ is between $1$ and $7$ .

We see that the total surface area can be comprised of three parts: the sides of the cubes, the tops of the cubes, and the bottom of the $7\times 7\times 7$ cube (which is just $7 \times 7 = 49$ ). The sides areas can be measured as the sum $4\sum_{n=0}^{7} n^2$ , giving us $610$ . Structurally, if we examine the tower from the top, we see that it really just forms a $7\times 7$ square of area $49$ . Therefore, we can say that the total surface area is $610 + 49 + 49 = \boxed{\text{(B) }658}$ .

2020 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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2020 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 10

Problem 10

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