A rectangular cube has sides measuring 3 inches long by 2 inches wide by 0.5 inches high. If the surface area of the rectangle is the same as a cube, what do the sides/walls of the cube measure? Round to the nearest whole number.  Choose the correct choice from the following answers.
A) 4  B) 5  C) 6  D) 7  E) 2

Rationale: first calculate the surface area of the rectangle by multiplying the length and width of the rectangle together , then multiply by 2 to get both sides of the rectangle . this calculates to 12 inches . find the surface area of the sides of the rectangular cube . multiply the height by the length of the rectangle . multiply the answer by 2 ( for the 2 sides on the rectangular cube ) . this calculates to 3 inches . then multiply the width of the rectangle by the height . multiply the answer by 2 ( for the 2 sides on the rectangular cube ) . this calculates to 2 inches . add the totals together to get the rectangular cube surface area of 17 inches . since a square cube has 6 sides , divide the surface area by 6 . this calculates to 2.833 inches as the surface area of each side of the cube . the square root of 2.833 is 1.683 . rounding to the nearest whole number that makes each side of the cube measuring 2 inches . the correct answer is ( e ) .
Answer: E