a city block is 3 times as long as it is wide. if the distance around the block is .48 kilometers, what is the are of the block in square meters

Question

a city block is 3 times as long as it is wide. if the distance around the block is .48 kilometers, what is the are of the block in square meters

Answer 1

A block is in the shape of a rectangle.  Draw a picture of a rectangle that is 3 times as long as it is wide.  Label the widths (these are the 2 short sides) with the unknown quantity X.  Then label the lengths as 3*X.  The distance around the block is the perimeter of the rectangle, if you add up the 4 sides you will see it is equal to X + 3*X + X + 3*X = 8*X.  This distance is equal to 0.48 kilometers which is 480 meters so   

 

8*X = 480

X = 480/8 = 60 meters  (this is the width of the rectangle)

 

Since X = 6, 3*X = 3*60 = 180 meters (this is the length of the rectangle)  

 

Now that you know what the length and width are you can multiply them together to get the area which is  

 

Area = (60 meters)*(180 meters) = 10800 square meters