
David O. answered 11/15/12
Masters Graduate and Long Time Personal Tutor
A rectangle has an area of 48 cm^2 and a length of 16 cm. What is the width of the rectangle?
To solve this geometry problem we begin by identifying the elements in the above question and their relationships:
Area = 48 cm^2
Length = 16 cm
Area (a)= length (l) * width (w)
To find the width we must isolate width (w) on one side of the equation. We can do this using the division property of equalities and divide both sides by l, allowing us to cancel l on the right side of the equation:
a = l * w
l l
a ÷ l = w --> w = a ÷ l
Now that we have isolated w we can substitute values for both a & l, theb simplify:
w = 48 cm^2 ÷ 16 cm
w = 3 cm (the cm in the denominator cancel one of the two cm in the numerator)
FREDERICK S.
elegant!12/12/12