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24 votes
24 votes
The square in the middle has an area of 1 square unit. What is the area of the entire

rectangle in square units? Explain your reasoning.

User Krishnakumarcn
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1 Answer

16 votes
16 votes
4 square units

If you draw a vertical line down the middle of the square, you divide it into two triangles that are congruent to the smaller triangles shown in the figure. Hence each of those triangles has an area of 1/2 square unit.
After you divide the square as as above, you see that two smaller triangles are identical in area to the larger triangles. So, each of those has an area of 2(1/2) = 1 square unit
Then the total of areas is…
2 small triangles + square + 2 large triangles =
2(1/2) + 1 + 2(1) = 4

Hopefully this helps a lot because this was a lot to type!
User Yaxlat
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