IXL | Area and perimeter: multi-step word problems with unit conversions

Kira's favorite animal is the blue whale. It's her birthday next week, so her brother Julian plans to paint her a picture of a blue whale. This morning, he painted a golden border along the edges of his canvas. The longer sides of the canvas are each 36 inches long, and the shorter sides are each 24 inches long. How many feet of border did Julian paint this morning?

feet

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Learn with an example

question

Aaliyah and Tamir are playing a game of table tennis. The tabletop has an area of 45 square feet, and each of its longer sides is 108 inches long. In feet, how long is each of the tabletop's shorter sides?

feet

key idea

You can find the area of a rectangle by multiplying the length by the width.

You can find the perimeter of a rectangle by adding all of the sides.

This is another way to write the formula for perimeter:

solution

You were asked to find the length of each of the tabletop's shorter sides in feet. You can follow these steps.

Step 1: Find the length of the tabletop's longer sides in

feet.

You know the tabletop's longer sides are each 108 inches long. There are 12 inches in a foot. So, divide by 12 to find the length in feet.

108

The tabletop's longer sides are each 9 feet long.

Step 2: Find the length of the tabletop's shorter sides.

In other words, find the width of the tabletop. The tabletop is 9 feet long and has an area of 45 square feet. To find the width, you can write an equation based on the area formula.

You can then divide 45 by 9 to find

So, the tabletop's shorter sides are each 5 feet long.

Looking for more? Try these:

Lesson: Area of rectangles

Lesson: Perimeter

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Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

TT.New!Area and perimeter of rectangles with fractions

TT.New!Area and perimeter of rectangles with decimals

JJ.1Compare and convert metric units of length

II.1Compare and convert customary units of length

Lesson: Area of rectangles

Lesson: Perimeter

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