document.write( "Question 78058: a rectangular piece of paper has a width of 16 inches and an area of 192 square inches. what is its length? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #55960 by bucky(2189)![]() ![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! The formula for the area of a rectangle is \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "A = L * W \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "In which A = area, L = length. And W = width. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "The problem tells you that the Area is 192 square inches and the width is 16 inches. If \n" ); document.write( "you substitute these two values into the equation for the area you get: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "192 = L * 16 \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "[Note that the units are consistent ... square inches and inches. Therefore, the answer will \n" ); document.write( "be inches.] \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "You can now solve for L by dividing both sides by the multiplier of L ... that is, divide \n" ); document.write( "both sides by 16. When you do that you get: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "L = 192/16 = 12 inches \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "So the developer of the problem ignored the standard definition of length as far as a rectangle \n" ); document.write( "is concerned. Whoever wrote the problem should have said the length was 16 inches and \n" ); document.write( "asked you to find the width. The width of a rectangle is normally considered to be the \n" ); document.write( "shorter dimension and the length the longer dimension. But if the area of the rectangle \n" ); document.write( "is 192 square inches and one side is 16 inches, the other side has to be 12 inches. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "Hope this helps to \"un-confuse\" you. I suspect you may have gotten 12 inches for the answer \n" ); document.write( "and thought you were doing something wrong because you expected to get an answer bigger \n" ); document.write( "than 16 inches since you were asked to find the length. Just consider that the writer \n" ); document.write( "of the problem made a mistake in convention by calling the shorter side the length and \n" ); document.write( "the longer side the width. \n" ); document.write( " |