A diagram of Mr. P's basement is shown below (yes, this is really what his basement looks like).
He needs to
know the number of square feet in order to lay a floor covering.
Can you help him determine the number of square feet in his basement?
Solution to the Problem:
The answer is 1,238 square feet.
You must determine the lengths of the two sides of the basement that were left blank.
The length of the bottom segment is 15 feet and the length of the small vertical segment is 2 feet.
I divided my basement into rectangles, and then found their areas. First, I converted all the lengths to inches. See the diagram below (the areas are given in blue, the missing sides in red).
The total area is 178,375 square inches or 1,238.7 square feet.
Correctly solved by:
| 1. Walt Arrsion | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 2. David and Judy Dixon | Bennettsville, South Carolina |
| 3. Cassandra Ayres |
Mountain View High School Mountain View, Wyoming |
| 4. Tori Kennedy | Brookstone School Columbus, Georgia |
| 5. Ben Reedy | Mountain View High School Mountain View, Wyoming |
| 6. Chantel Walker | Mountain View High School Mountain View, Wyoming |
| 7. spud_man07@yahoo.com | Mountain View High School Mountain View, Wyoming |
| 8. Natalie Garn | Mountain View High School Mountain View, Wyoming |
| 9. Mr. Robb's Discrete Math Class | John Handley High School Winchester, Virginia |
| 9. Elizabeth Lingo | Brookstone School Columbus, Georgia |
| 10. Luke Mansour |
Brookstone School Columbus, Georgia |
| 11. Tristan Collins |
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia |
| 12. John Funk | Ventura, California |
| 13. Richard K. Johnson | La Jolla, California |