
Lauren H. answered 04/29/20
Experienced High School Chemistry Teacher
To solve this, I drew a picture of the original rectangle within the enlarged rectangle. I let the original rectangle be 1m by 3 m. Then, the bigger rectangle is 1 + 4 = 5m by 3 + 4 = 7m
So the area of the big rectangle = l x w = 7m x 5m = 35 m^2
If the additional area added = 32 m^2, then 35 m^2 - 32 m^2 = 3 m^2.
The original rectangle is 3 m^2, or 3m by 1m.