Find the area of rectangle

Question

Hi tutor,

My daughter have a question we not quite sure what the question ask us to do.  Please explain to us and answer.  Thank you

 

question:

Stacy tiles the rectangle below using her square pattern blocks.  

  L = 5

 W = 3

Find the area of Stacy's rectangle in square units.  Then draw and label a different rectangle with the Whole number side lengths that has same area.

 

Answer 1

The area of a rectangle is simply the length times the width.  If the rectangle has a length of 5 and a width of 3, then the area is 15 square units. 

 

Now they want use to find ANOTHER rectangle with different dimensions that has the same area.  But the sides have to be whole numbers (like 1, 2, 3, etc.) and not fractions.

The problem is that it's not completely clear what they mean by "different."  Suppose the length were 3 and the width were 5.  That would also have an area of 15.  But does it count as a different rectangle?  Because it's really just the same as the original one, except that it's been rotated around.

 

If that doesn't count as different, then you'd have to find two other numbers that multiply together to 15.  In this case, the only whole numbers that work are 1 and 15.  A rectangle with a length of 15 and a width of 1 also has an area of 15.  So a 15 x 1 rectangle is a good answer.