A rectangular piece of cardboard measuring 25in. by 16in. is to be made into an open box with a base (bottom) of 252in^2 by cutting equal squares from the four corners and then bending up the sides. Find, to the nearest tenth of an inch, the length of the side of the square that must be cut from each corner.

Now this is something bill nye the science guy should ’s still on disney right?

So the first thing we do is to multiply the top equation by 3. the reason i want to do this is i notice there will be a 6y on both equations and can possibly add/subtract them. so we get 6y = -3x + 27. adding that and the second equation we get 6x = 27-15 which is 12. divide by 6 and we get 2. ∴ x = 2. substituting 2 into the first equation we get 2y = -2 + 9 which is 7. divide by 2 and we get 7/2. ∴ y = 7/2, x = 2.