Question

Suppose you are an elementary school teacher. You want to order a rectangular bulletin board to mount on a classroom wall that has an area of 160 square feet. Suppose fire code requirements allow for no more than 30% of a classroom wall to be covered by a bulletin board. If the length of the board is three times as long as the width, what are the dimensions of the largest bulletin board that meets fire code?

width FT
ft length FT

Answer 1

L=12 W=4

Explanation:

160x.3= 48ft for fire code

4x12=48

Answer 2

12 feet x 4 feet

Explanation:

The classroom wall is 160 feet, and no more than 30% of it may be covered.

Multiply 160 times .3 to get the maximum amount of square feet that the bulletin board can cover.

You get 48 square feet for the bulletin board.

The length of the board is three times as long as the width, so the length must be 12 and the width must be 4 feet.

Answer: 12 feet x 4 feet