The length of a rectangle is increased by 25% , but the width of the rectangle is decreased by 25%. By what percent was the rectangle's area decreased?
Let's do it with an example.
Start with a rectangle that's 8 x 4. The area of this rectangle is 32.
8 + 25% = 10
4 – 25% = 3 The area of this rectangle is 30.
The area was decreased by 2.
To get the percent of decrease, divide this by the size of the original rectangle.
2/32 = 0.0625 so the percent of decrease is 6.25%
This was a special case, using specific numbers.
Try it with a few different size original rectangles, and see if the answer is consistently the same.
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