An artist wants to cover in gold leaf a card with the initial letter shown. Decompose the letter into simple shapes to find the area. How many square centimeters of gold leaf will the artist need? Do not round your answe

Answer 1

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The initial letter is "A".

To find the area, we decompose the letter into simple shapes:

- One rectangle for the diagonal of the A
- Two triangles for the sides of the A
- One rectangle for the crossbar of the A

Now we calculate the area of each shape:

1. The diagonal rectangle: The dimensions are approximately 2.5 cm by 6 cm, so the area is 2.5 cm * 6 cm = 15 square cm.

2. The two triangles: The base is approximately 6 cm and the height is approximately 1.5 cm. The area of one triangle is 0.5 * base * height = 0.5 * 6 cm * 1.5 cm = 4.5 square cm. Since there are two triangles, the total area for both is 2 * 4.5 square cm = 9 square cm.

3. The crossbar rectangle: The dimensions are approximately 4 cm by 2.5 cm, so the area is 4 cm * 2.5 cm = 10 square cm.

Adding all the areas together, the total area the artist will need to cover in gold leaf is 15 square cm + 9 square cm + 10 square cm = 34 square cm.