How to find the area of a rectangle - GRE Quantitative Reasoning

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Question

If a rectangle's width is increased by 20%, and its length is decreased by 20%, which statement most accurately reflects the rectangle's change in area?

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Answer

If l x w = A, then we will call the new area B. B results when l has been decreased by 20% and w has been increased by 20%: in other words, 80% of l and 120% of w.

This is expressed as (0.8) l * (1.2) w = B

The simplest way to determine the result is to create rectangles with actual integers and see what happens. Let's say our first rectangle is a square 10 units by 10 units.

10 * 10 = 100 for our A.

Plugging these numbers into our new equation gives us:

(0.8)10 * (1.2)10 = 96.

So the final step is to compare the areas. Because we used a 10 x 10 rectangle as our example, this step will be easy, since 100% = 100.

96/100 = 0.96

0.96 * 100 = 96%

Which reflects a 4% reduction in the size of the rectangle.

Any other length and width used for this rectangle will result in a 4% reduction in size when the above parameters are applied.

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