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NO LINKS!! URGENT HELP PLEASE!!!

1. What rectangle dimensions give the greatest possible area? Explain. (From the rectangle with a perimeter of 20 meters)

2. Suppose the dimensions were not restricted to whole numbers. Would this change your answer? Explain. (same as # 1)

1 Answer

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Problem 1

L = length

W = width

P = perimeter of the rectangle

P = 2L+2W

P = 20

2L+2W = 20

L+W = 10 after dividing everything by 2.

L = 10-W

area = length*width

A = L*W

A = (10-W)*W

A = -W^2 + 10W

Let x replace W for a temporary basis.

If we graphed y = -x^2+10x, then we'd see the highest point occurs at (5, 25). This means a width of 5 meters leads to the largest area of 25 square meters.

The length would be L = 10-W = 10-5 = 5 meters as well.

It turns out that a 5 meter by 5 meter square is the best choice when trying to max out this rectangle's area.

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Problem 2

The results we got from the previous section was that a 5 by 5 square will max out the area.

If we allowed non-whole numbers into the mix, then it wouldn't change the previous answer. The best choice is still that 5 by 5 square.

The answer only would change if the result of the previous section was some non-integer value.

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