Question

Jason is helping his friend build a rectangular garden. The area of the garden is 36 square meters. The length of the garden is 9 meters. Jason wonders what the width of the garden will be. Jason knows that the formula for the area of a rectangle is (A = l * w). How would he rearrange this formula to highlight the width, w, as the quantity of interest?

Answer 1

To rearrange the formula for the area of a rectangle, \( A = l \times w \), to highlight the width \( w \), you want to solve for \( w \).

Starting with the original formula:

\[
A = l \times w
\]

To isolate \( w \), divide both sides of the equation by \( l \):

\[
w = \frac{A}{l}
\]

Now, you have a rearranged formula with \( w \) as the quantity of interest.

In this case, Jason knows that the area \( A \) is 36 square meters and the length \( l \) is 9 meters. He can now find the width \( w \) using the rearranged formula:

\[
w = \frac{36}{9} = 4 \text{ meters}
\]

So, the width of the garden is 4 meters.