SOLUTION: John, a professional photographer, has a 6 inch by 8 inch photo. He wishes to reduce the photo by the same amount on each side so that the resulting photo will have half the area o

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Question 658081: John, a professional photographer, has a 6 inch by 8 inch photo. He wishes to reduce the photo by the same amount on each side so that the resulting photo will have half the area of the original. By how much will he have to reduce the length of each side?
Answer by colliefan(242) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The original photo has an area of:
A=length*width
A=6 in * 8 in = 48 in^2
The desired area is half this or 24 in^2.
The product of the new length and width must equal 24 in^2.
If you reduce both sides by 2 inches, the new photo is 4 in x 6 in. Both sides are reduced by 2 inches and the resultant area is halved.