Question

a large square room has an area of 144 m2 . a) find the length of a side of the room. b) how much baseboard is needed to go around the room? c) each piece of baseboard is 2.5 m long. how many pieces of baseboard are needed?

Answer 1

Part (a)

area = (side)^2

side = sqrt(area)

side = sqrt(144)

side = 12 meters

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Part (b)

perimeter = 4*(side)

perimeter = 4*12

perimeter = 48

Therefore, you'll need 48 meters of baseboard.

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Part (c)

n = number of pieces

2.5n = total length of all n baseboards

2.5n = total perimeter

2.5n = 48

n = 48/2.5

n = 19.2

Round this up to the nearest whole number. Do not round to n = 19 as that value is too small. Note how 2.5n = 2.5*19 = 47.5 meters, which is 0.5 meters short of the goal of 48 meters.

But if n = 20 then 2.5n = 2.5*20 = 50 meters. We'll have 2 extra meters of baseboard.

Therefore, you need 20 pieces of baseboard.

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Answers:

(a) side length = 12 meters

(b) 48 meters of baseboard

(c) 20 pieces