Explanation:
the area of a rectangle is
length × width.
so, it's simply a problem of multiplying 2 fractions.
it is
2 3/5 × 3 1/4
first we need to convert the numbers into true fractions.
2 3/5 = (2×5 + 3)/5 = 13/5
3 1/4 = (3×4 + 1)/4 = 13/4
the beauty of a multiplication (compared to addition) is that we don't need to bring the fractions to the same denominator. we can simply calculate with what they are.
you remember,
a/b × c/d = (a×c)/(b×d)
therefore,
13/5 × 13/4 = (13×13)/(5×4) = 169/20 =
= (8×20 + 9)/20 = 8 9/20
the area of the rectangle is 8 9/20 in²