Posted on 03/10/2015 5:48:37 PM PDT by MNDude
My daughter has this problem-solving question for her homework. I'm feeling kind of dumb on this one. What do you think is the correct answer?
Mrs. Feltner wants to put a border on a baby blanket. The area of the blanket is 12 square units. Which shows how many units of materials she needs for the border?
A 12 units B 14 units C 15 units D 21 units
It’s a quilting “B”
According to Common Core, first you have to make friends with the ten in the twelve. Then you have to add another friend to make twenty. From the twenty, you have to add the one and the two from the twelve to make twenty-three. Now, two plus three is five, which you add to the original twelve to get seventeen. But since you added three numbers together, you take back three from seventeen to get fourteen, and there’s your answer: B.
14 units
It is 12 square units, therefore, 3units up top, 3 units on the bottom, 4 units to the left, and 4 units to the right.
Does the diagram below help?
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Good point!
Assuming whole units and a rectangular shape it must be an even number, and therefore B is the only available choice.
What grade is this for?
Insufficient information. This is just the kind of problem that a teacher with no grounding in math will give to a student, then look in the key to answer.
There are an infinite number of answers. It's a system of 2 equations in 3 unknowns. The answer that minimizes is 13.86 (approximately), which occurs for a square.
First thing I did was assume a rectangle and digest the square roots to define the lower limit. C and D could be acieved, but not using whole units.
We do not know the width of the border. Only its length. therefore, one cannot determine how many units are needed at the corners to meet the border corners. Suppose the border is 2X Units in width and the blanket 3x4 units. The border would have to be 3 units on two sides and 8 units on two sides to have the corners meet.
Answer is 14 units.
Area is 12 Square
4+4+3+3
or
6+6+2+2 = 16 Since that’s not one of the choices. you’re left with 14.
I’m a reading specialist. One year they assigned me as a co-teacher in a 6th grade math class. It didn’t last because I kept analyzing the story problems and coming up with the wrong answers....I swear this is true!
...10 units needing covering
What?
W=WIDTH, L=LENGTH
15 works too.
L= 5.186
W+ 2.314
Not true. 15 works also (L= 5.186, W=2.314)
However, The State wants you to answer 14 feet.
We've got a winner!
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