Final answer:
To find the area of the countertop in square meters, multiply the length by the width to get the area in square feet, then convert that to square meters by dividing it by 10.7639, resulting in approximately 4.46 square meters.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the area of the countertop in square meters, we first need to use the formula for the area of a rectangle, which is length multiplied by width. In this case, the countertop measurements are given in feet, so after finding the area in square feet, we will convert it to square meters.
The area in square feet is 16 feet (length) × 3 feet (width) = 48 square feet.
To convert square feet to square meters, we use the conversion factor 1 square meter = 10.7639 square feet. So, we divide the area in square feet by this conversion factor:
Area in square meters = 48 square feet ÷ 10.7639 square feet/square meter ≈ 4.46 square meters.
The final answer is rounded to two decimal places to match common practice and the precision of the given conversion factor.