# SOLUTION: if the two sides of a rectangle change so that the area remains constant,and one side is increased by 25%,what is the percentage increase or decrease of the other side. i think i a

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 Question 177086: if the two sides of a rectangle change so that the area remains constant,and one side is increased by 25%,what is the percentage increase or decrease of the other side. i think i am missing some steps please help thanx Found 2 solutions by scott8148, solver91311:Answer by scott8148(6628)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!if the sides are x and y, then the area is xy let's increase x by 25%, so it is now 1.25x if k is the change in y, then (1.25x)(ky)=xy 1.25kxy=xy dividing by xy __ 1.25k=1 dividing by 1.25 __ k=.8 or 80% so if one dimension is increased by 25%, the other dimension is DECREASED by 20% to keep the area constant Answer by solver91311(16868)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!The area of the original rectangle is If you increase the size of side by 25%, then the new side is and in order for the area to remain the same, the other side of the rectangle has to be multiplied by some factor we can call , making the new side . So the area of the new rectangle is But we are given that the two rectangles have the same area, so: Divide both sides of this equation by and we have: Which is to say that the other side is decreased by