To resolve this, we need to find the surface area of the cube because the material needed to make the box would be equivalent to the surface area of the cube.
Firstly, we need to remember that a cube has 6 equal sides, hence, the surface area of a cube is calculated as 6 times the square of the length of one edge. This is a standard mathematical formula for the surface area of a cube.
The length of one edge in our case is 8 inches.
Step 1 is to square the length of the edge: 8 inches * 8 inches = 64 square inches.
Step 2 is to multiply the squared edge length by the number of cube sides, which is 6: 64 square inches * 6 = 384 square inches.
Therefore, we would need 384 square inches of material to make the box.