The area of a square frame is 55 square inches. Find the length of one side of the frame. Explain.

a. to the nearest whole inch
b. to the nearest tenth of an inch
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Part 1
a. The length of one side of the frame to the nearest whole inch is
  
enter your response here in.

1 answer

To find the length of one side of a square frame given that its area is 55 square inches, we can use the formula for the area of a square:

\[ \text{Area} = \text{side}^2 \]

Let \(s\) represent the length of one side of the square. Therefore, we can set up the equation:

\[ s^2 = 55 \]

To find \(s\), we take the square root of both sides:

\[ s = \sqrt{55} \]

Now let's calculate the square root of 55.

  1. Using a calculator:

    \[ s \approx 7.416198 \]

Now we can round this value as requested:

Part a: To the nearest whole inch

Rounding \(7.416198\) to the nearest whole inch gives us:

  • The integer part is 7. Since .416 is less than .5, we round down.

Thus, the length of one side of the frame to the nearest whole inch is:

\[ \text{Length} \approx 7 \text{ in} \]

Part b: To the nearest tenth of an inch

Rounding \(7.416198\) to the nearest tenth gives us:

  • The tenths place is 4, and the digit after it is 1 (which is less than 5), so we round down.

Thus, the length of one side of the frame to the nearest tenth of an inch is:

\[ \text{Length} \approx 7.4 \text{ in} \]

Summary of Results:

a. The length of one side of the frame to the nearest whole inch is 7 in.
b. The length of one side of the frame to the nearest tenth of an inch is 7.4 in.