Question

Kendra is drawing a rectangle. The length will be 4 inches, and the area will be at least 12 square inches.
Let x represent the width of the rectangle. Which inequality describes the problem?
Solve the inequality. Then, complete the sentence to describe the solution.
The rectangle will be at least inches wide.

Answer 1

To find the inequality that describes the problem, we start with the area formula for a rectangle, which is:

\[
\text{Area} = \text{Length} \times \text{Width}
\]

In this case, Kendra's rectangle has a length of 4 inches and we let \( x \) represent the width of the rectangle. The problem states that the area must be at least 12 square inches. Therefore, we can write the inequality as:

\[
4x \geq 12
\]

Next, we will solve this inequality for \( x \):

1. Divide both sides of the inequality by 4:

\[
x \geq \frac{12}{4}
\]

2. Simplify the right side:

\[
x \geq 3
\]

The solution to the inequality indicates that the width \( x \) must be at least 3 inches.

Now, completing the sentence:

The rectangle will be at least **3 inches** wide.