A hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest pyramid in the United States. Prior to the construction of the building, the architects designed a scale model. If the height of the scale model was 9 inches less than its length and its base is a square, write a polynomial function that describes the volume of the model in terms of its length.
The volume of a square pyramid is:
V = (1/3) LxWxH
From the problem we know that:
H = L - 9 and
W = L
Substituting this to the formula of the volume to generate a polynomial function:
V = f(L) = (1/3) L x L x (L - 9)
Expanding:
f(L) = L³/3 - 3L²