Answer to Problem of the Month for May 2007

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

May 2007 Problem of the Month

Correctly solved by:

May 2007
Problem of the Month