Sonya wants to sew ribbon along each side of a square pillow.

Question

If the pillow has an area of 144 square inches, how much ribbon must she buy to have the exact amount that she needs?
Enter your answer in the box.

in.

Answer 1

To find out how much ribbon Sonya needs to sew around the square pillow, we first need to determine the dimensions of the pillow.

1. Calculate the side length of the pillow: The area of a square is given by the formula: \[ \text{Area} = \text{side length}^2 \] We know that the area of the pillow is 144 square inches, so we can set up the equation: \[ \text{side length}^2 = 144 \] Taking the square root of both sides gives: \[ \text{side length} = \sqrt{144} = 12 \text{ inches} \]

2. Calculate the perimeter of the pillow: The perimeter \( P \) of a square is given by the formula: \[ P = 4 \times \text{side length} \] Substituting the side length we found: \[ P = 4 \times 12 = 48 \text{ inches} \]

Therefore, Sonya must buy 48 inches of ribbon to have the exact amount needed to sew along each side of the square pillow.