Question

A rectangle has a base of 5 inches and a height of 7 inches. If the dimensions are cut in half, what will happen to the area of the rectangle?

Answer 1

The area of a rectangle is measured by base times height:

A = bh

If both dimensions are cut in half, we are left with:

(0.5b)(0.5h) = 0.25bh

This is one-fourth of the original area.

Answer 2

Area = base * height = 35 square inches
When we make the dimensions 2.5 by 3.5 then,area = 2.5 * 3.5 = 8.75 square inches
35 / 8.75 = 4So, when we reduce the width AND the height by 2, the area decreases by 4.Why?  Because when we are reducing 2 dimensions:area = width/ 2 * length / 2 = area / 4