Calculate Rectangle Area: Finding Area of (a+3) by (b+8)

Question

Calculate the area of the rectangle below in terms of a and b.

a+3a+3a+3b+8b+8b+8

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Find the expression for the rectangle's area
00:03 We want to find the area of the rectangle
00:06 We'll use the formula for calculating rectangle area (side times side)
00:10 We'll substitute appropriate values according to the given data and solve for the area
00:17 We'll properly open parentheses and multiply A by the 2 factors
00:25 Now we'll multiply 3 by the 2 factors
00:44 And this is the solution to the problem

Step-by-Step Solution

Let us begin by reminding ourselves of the formula to calculate the area of a rectangle: width X length

S=wh S=w⋅h

When:

S = area

w = width

h = height

We take data from the sides of the rectangle in the figure.w=b+8 w=b+8 h=a+3 h=a+3

We then substitute the above data into the formula in order to calculate the area of the rectangle:

S=wh=(b+8)(a+3) S=w⋅h = (b+8)(a+3)

We use the formula of the extended distributive property:

(a+b)(c+d)=ac+ad+bc+bd (a+b)(c+d)=ac+ad+bc+bd

We substitute once more and solve the problem as follows:

S=(b+8)(a+3)=(b)(a)+(b)(3)+(8)(a)+(8)(3) S=(b+8)(a+3)=(b)(a)+(b)(3)+(8)(a)+(8)(3)

(b)(a)+(b)(3)+(8)(a)+(8)(3)=ab+3b+8a+24 (b)(a)+(b)(3)+(8)(a)+(8)(3)=ab+3b+8a+24

Therefore, the correct answer is option B: ab+8a+3b+24.

Keep in mind that, since there are only addition operations, the order of the terms in the expression can be changed and, therefore,

ab+3b+8a+24=ab+8a+3b+24 ab+3b+8a+24=ab+8a+3b+24

Answer

ab + 8a + 3b + 24