SOLUTION: Drawing: Rectangle containing 8 circles of equal size (4 on top row, 4 on bottom row) Problem: Find the area of the rectangle if the radius of each circle is 3 What I know: The

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Question 209636: Drawing: Rectangle containing 8 circles of equal size (4 on top row, 4 on bottom row)
Problem: Find the area of the rectangle if the radius of each circle is 3
What I know: The area of a circle is A=IIr^2 / A=3.14 x 3^2 / A=3.14 x 9 / A=28.26 so the area of the 8 circles would be 28.26 x 8=226.08, but is that really the area of the rectangle that contains the circles? Is there a formula for finding this answer?
Thank you for your help!

Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
To find the area of the rectangle, you need to know the length (L) and width (W) of the rectangle.
These are given as the diameters of the eight circles.
The radius of each circle is 3 so the diameter is 6.
Assuming the circles are tightly packed, then the diameters of the four cirles on top add up to be the length (L) of the rectangle while the two circles on the side will give you the width (W) of the rectangle.
The length is thus 4 X 6 = 24 and the width is 2 X 6 = 12.
A = L*W
A = 24*12
A = 288 square units.