An artist wants to cover in gold leaf a card with the initial letter H. Decompose the letter into simple shapes to find the area. How many square centimeters of gold leaf will the artist need?

Answer 1

To decompose the letter H into simple shapes, we can break it down into two rectangles and two squares.

Let's label the different parts of the letter H as follows:

- Rectangle 1: Top horizontal bar
- Rectangle 2: Vertical bar
- Square 1: Top left corner
- Square 2: Bottom left corner

Now, let's measure the dimensions of each shape to calculate their areas:

- Rectangle 1: Let's assume the top horizontal bar has a width of 3 cm and a height of 1 cm. Therefore, the area of Rectangle 1 is 3 cm x 1 cm = 3 square cm.
- Rectangle 2: Let's assume the vertical bar has a width of 1 cm and a height of 4 cm. Therefore, the area of Rectangle 2 is 1 cm x 4 cm = 4 square cm.
- Square 1: Let's assume each side of the square is 1 cm. Therefore, the area of Square 1 is 1 cm x 1 cm = 1 square cm.
- Square 2: Let's assume each side of the square is 1 cm. Therefore, the area of Square 2 is 1 cm x 1 cm = 1 square cm.

Now, we can add up the areas of all the shapes to find the total area that the artist will need to cover in gold leaf:

Total area = 3 square cm + 4 square cm + 1 square cm + 1 square cm = 9 square cm

Therefore, the artist will need 9 square centimeters of gold leaf to cover the initial letter H.