Question

if the area of a rectangle is 12cm2 what could its length be and its width?

Answer 1

Hello,

We know that th formula for the area of a rectangle is:
`A=b*h`
Now, the problem in this excercise is that there is no restriction on the values that b and h can take, so, they can take any value provided that it meets:
`b*h=12 cm^(2)`
for example:

`lenght= (12)/(3)cm \,\,\,\,\,\,and\,\,\,\,width= 3 cm \\ \\ A=(12)/(3)cm*3cm \\ A=12 cm^(2)`

But if they can only take intenger values, what we have to do is to descompose 12, and then we can analyze the possible solutions.

12 | 2
6 | 2
3 | 3
1

12= 2 *2*3

first option:
12=4*3

Answer: lenght= 4cm and width= 3cm or vice versa

second option:
12=2*6

Answer: lenght= 6cm and width= 2cm or vice versa