Amanda is resizing a rectangular picture on her computer. The original picture has a length of 8 in and a width of 5 in. If she wants to keep it proportional, but have the new length be 4 in, what should be the new width?

Answer 1

To find the new width, we can use the proportions of the original and new picture dimensions.

Original length: 8 in
Original width: 5 in

New length: 4 in

Let x be the new width.

We can set up the proportion:
8 / 5 = 4 / x

Cross multiplying, we get:
8x = 5 * 4
8x = 20
x = 20 / 8
x = 2.5

Therefore, the new width should be 2.5 inches.