Final answer:
To find the length of the rectangle, use the formula for the area of a rectangle: length x width = area. Plug in the given values and solve for the length. The length of the rectangle is 1/10 foot.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the length of the rectangle, we need to use the formula for the area of a rectangle: length x width = area. Given that the area of the rectangle is 5/8 square feet and the width is 2 1/2 feet, we can plug these values into the formula and solve for the length. Multiplying the width by the length gives us 2 1/2 x length = 5/8. To isolate the length, we can divide both sides of the equation by 2 1/2, which is the same as multiplying by the reciprocal (2/5).
2 1/2 x length = 5/8
(2 1/2) x (2/5) x length = (5/8) x (2/5)
5/2 x length = 1/4
Dividing both sides by 5/2: length = (1/4) ÷ (5/2)
length = (1/4) x (2/5) = 2/20 = 1/10
So, the length of the rectangle is 1/10 foot.