Q9 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?

1 answer

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

Starting with the formula:

\[ A = l \times w \]

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

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

Now, Jason can use this rearranged formula to find the width of the garden. Given that the area \( A \) is 36 square meters and the length \( l \) is 9 meters, he can substitute these values into the equation:

\[ w = \frac{36}{9} \]

Calculating this gives:

\[ w = 4 \]

Therefore, the width of the garden is 4 meters.