Final answer:
The area of the rectangular piece of plastic when converted to square meters is approximately 44.6 square meters, which means the correct answer is not provided among the options.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is about converting the area of a rectangle from square feet to square meters. First, we calculate the area in feet by multiplying the length by the width: 32.0 feet × 15.0 feet = 480.0 square feet. To convert to square meters, we use the conversion factor 1 square meter = 10.7639 square feet. Thus, the area in square meters is 480.0 square feet ÷ 10.7639 square feet/square meter = 44.59 square meters. This number, rounded to the proper number of significant figures, is approximately 44.6 square meters. Hence, none of the given options (a) 480.0 square meters, (b) 14.4 square meters, (c) 144.0 square meters, or (d) 4.68 square meters is correct.