Question

Mowing the lawn is one of Jeremy's jobs at home. But, Jeremy's dad offered to help him this week. His dad drew the following diagram of the lawn and told Jeremy to choose one of the parts to mow. If Jeremy wants to mow the rectangle with the smaller area, which one should he choose?



Part 2
Both parts have the same area.
Part 1
Not enough information.

Answer 1

I don't have the diagram you mentioned, so I can't tell which part is smaller. Could you either upload the picture or describe how the lawn is divided (where the dividing line(s) are, any lengths or markings)?

If you want to check yourself, here are quick ways to decide from common diagrams:

- If the rectangle is cut by a straight line that goes through the rectangle's center (the intersection of its diagonals), the two pieces have equal area. (A rectangle is centrally symmetric, so any line through the center splits area in half.)
- If it's cut by a vertical or horizontal line a distance a from one side, compare a·height versus (width−a)·height.
- If it's cut by a diagonal from one corner to the opposite, the two triangles each have area (width·height)/2, so they are equal.
- If the division creates shapes you can decompose into rectangles/triangles, compute each piece's area and compare.

Send the diagram or a description and I’ll compute which part is smaller.