Question

You may recall that the area of a rectangle is A=L⋅W, where W is the width and L is the length.

Suppose that the length of a rectangle is 3 times the width. If the area is 300 square feet, then what is the width of the rectangle, in feet?

Do not type the units in your answer.

Answer 1

The width is 10 feet.

Explanation:

We know that the area of a rectangle is given by the formula:

`\displaystyle A=L\cdot W`

Where L is the length and W is the width.

We are given that the length of the rectangle is three times the width. In other words:

`L=3W`

The total area is 300 square feet. And we want to determine the width of the rectangle.

So, substitute 300 for A and 3W for L:

`(300)=(3W)\cdot W`

Multiply:

`300=3W^2`

Divide both sides by three:

`W^2=100`

And take the principal square root of both sides. So:

`W=10`

Thus, the width of the rectangle is 10 feet.