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:
$lenght= \frac{12}{3}cm \,\,\,\,\,\,and\,\,\,\,width= 3 cm \\ \\ A=\frac{12}{3}cm*3cm \\ A=12 cm^{2}$

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