Question

A circle is cut from a square piece of cloth, as shown:

Answer 1

You need to figure out the area of the circle since that is what you are removing from the piece of square cloth.  If the circle touches all the sides of the square and the side of the square is 36 in, then the diameter of the circle is also 36 in.  The radius, then, is half of that, being 18.  The formula for the area of a circle is $A= \pi r^2$, so filling in accordingly and using 3.14 for pi, we have  $A= (3.14)(18)^2$.  Doing the multiplication on that gives us an area of 1017.36 inches squared.  First choice above.