Chapter 1.1, Problem 15STP

To determine

How many carpet squares does she need.

Answer to Problem 15STP

  $48\text{carpet squares}$

Explanation of Solution

GIVEN:

Gypsy wants to cover the floor of a rectangular room using carpet squares with a side length of 2.5 feet.

  

In order to find how many carpet square does she need, first to find area of a carpet square, multiply the side length by side length, that is 2.5 feet, then to find the area of the rectangular room, multiply the length, that is 20 feet by the width, that is 15 feet, and then to find how many carpet square she needs , divide the area of the room by the area of a carpet square, to simplify further as shown below:

  $\begin{array}{l}\text{area of a carpet square }=2.5\text{feet}\times \text{2}\text{.5feet}\\ \text{=}\text{6}\text{.25 square feet}\\ \text{area of rectangular room}=15\text{feet}\times \text{20feet}\\ =300\text{square feet}\\ \text{number of carpet square}=300\text{square feet}÷\text{6}\text{.25 square feet}\\ =48\text{carpet square}\end{array}$

So, 48 carpet squares are needed to cover the floor of the rectangular room.