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Area and volume SAT question

Math · Geometry and Trigonometry · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.

A rectangular poster has an area of square inches. A copy of the poster is made in which the length and width of the original poster are each increased by . What is the area of the copy, in square inches?

Enter a number or fraction (like 3/17 or 0.176). Press Enter to check.

ExplanationShow

The correct answer is . It's given that the area of the original poster is square inches. Let  represent the length, in inches, of the original poster, and let represent the width, in inches, of the original poster. Since the area of a rectangle is equal to its length times its width, it follows that . It's also given that a copy of the poster is made in which the length and width of the original poster are each increased by . It follows that the length of the copy is the length of the original poster plus  of the length of the original poster, which is equivalent to  inches. This length can be rewritten as inches, or  inches. Similarly, the width of the copy is the width of the original poster plus  of the width of the original poster, which is equivalent to  inches. This width can be rewritten as  inches, or inches. Since the area of a rectangle is equal to its length times its width, it follows that the area, in square inches, of the copy is equal to , which can be rewritten as . Since , the area, in square inches, of the copy can be found by substituting for  in the expression , which yields , or . Therefore, the area of the copy, in square inches, is .

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