The formula of the area of a square is the side length squared. So to get the width of the rectangle, you need to square root the area of the square. The square root of 256 is 16, therefore the width of the rectangle is also 16 inches. Since the length of the rectangle is 2 inches longer, you add 2 to 16, which gives you 18 inches.
The formula for the area of a rectangle is the length multiplied by the width.
18*16=288. The area of the rectangle is 288 inches.
