Problema Solution
Julie cuts a square into two congruent parts and rearranges the parts to make a rectangle. The short side of her new rectangle is 6 centimeters. What is the area of her rectangle?
Answer provided by our tutors
Two congruent parts of a square would be dividing the square exactly in two, hence the short side of the rectangle of 6 centimeters would indicate that the square was 12 centimeters
the area of the rectangle would be equal to the area of the square; let 'A' represent the area of the square:
A=12^2
A=144
The area of the square would be 144 cm^2 but the reference to the rectangle is ambiguous and we assume that rearranging the rectangles produces a new rectangle which would be the same area as the undivided square (otherwise, it would be half the area of the full square)