SOLUTION: on my sons homework paper they have a question that states: A rectangle has a length of 2/3 foot and a width of 3/10 foot. what is the area of the rectangle. I'm having a reall

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Question 733441: on my sons homework paper they have a question that states: A rectangle has a length of 2/3 foot and a width of 3/10 foot. what is the area of the rectangle. I'm having a really hard time helping him with this because math was never my strongest subject.

Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, rothauserc:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39630) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The units in one direction are "foot", and the units in the other direction are "foot". The units for the AREA will be in SQUARE FEET.

If you were using measurements which were simple, whole numbers, what would you do? You would multiply the number in one direction by the number in the other direction. That would be your square units area result. You do THE SAME THING if the length and width measurements are fractions.

What is different? Multiply the numerators to get the resulting numerator and multiply the denominators to get the resulting denominator. Then, simplify the result.

2/3 foot length * 3/10 foot width = the area in square feet.

square feet,
but that is not simplified.
The simplification could, in fact, be partly done before getting the .
There is a common factor of 2 in the numerator and denominator. Also a common factor of 3 in numerator and denominator. Divide numerator and denominator each by 2 AND by 3:
(6 divided by 6)/(30 divided by 6) = 1/5
This means, square feet.

(note that 2*3=6)
(note, I am using the forward slash as a DIVISION OPERATION SYMBOL).

Answer by rothauserc(4718) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
the area of a rctangle is given by the following equation
Area = length times width
for this problem you have
Area = 2/3 times 3/10 = 6/30 or reducing the fraction = 1/5 square foot