Hi,
In helping my little brother with his math homework. There was a basic problem of finding an area of a square which measures 20 inches by 20 inches. The area of course equals 400 inches. We then divided the 400 inches by 12 inches to get approx 33.33 for the ft of the area, however we know that 33.33ft is not the correct area for a square that measures 20 x 20 inches. We then converted the 20 inches to feet which equaled 1.67ft. Multiplying 1.67ft by itself we got 2.77ft for the area which is correct. My question isn't about the basic operations but is about why the 2.77ft area does not match up to the 400 inches when we did it the first time. Why does the 400 inches not convert to 2.77ft as they should be the same area, simply one expressed in inches and the other in ft. Forgive me if this seems like an obvious question I haven't cracked a math book open in forever.
In helping my little brother with his math homework. There was a basic problem of finding an area of a square which measures 20 inches by 20 inches. The area of course equals 400 inches. We then divided the 400 inches by 12 inches to get approx 33.33 for the ft of the area, however we know that 33.33ft is not the correct area for a square that measures 20 x 20 inches. We then converted the 20 inches to feet which equaled 1.67ft. Multiplying 1.67ft by itself we got 2.77ft for the area which is correct. My question isn't about the basic operations but is about why the 2.77ft area does not match up to the 400 inches when we did it the first time. Why does the 400 inches not convert to 2.77ft as they should be the same area, simply one expressed in inches and the other in ft. Forgive me if this seems like an obvious question I haven't cracked a math book open in forever.
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Because you have square inches and you converted to inch-feet
20 inches x 20 inches x 1foot/12 inches = 33 inch feet you need
20 inches x 20 inches X 1 foot/12 inches x 1foot/12 inches
(400in^2 x 1 ft^2) / 144in^2
=2.78 ft^2
20 inches x 20 inches x 1foot/12 inches = 33 inch feet you need
20 inches x 20 inches X 1 foot/12 inches x 1foot/12 inches
(400in^2 x 1 ft^2) / 144in^2
=2.78 ft^2
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Go crack that book open or better yet, leave him alone to figure it out and have him not tell you because you'd rather cheat and look for the answers on here then go study for yourself.
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Multiply the total feet by the total inches in a foot so say 20 feet times 12 inches equals 240 inches,
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because thats 400 inches squared you need to divide it by 12 inches squared or 144.
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1 Square Inch = 0.00694444444 Square Feet
400 square inches = 1.74 square feet
400 square inches = 1.74 square feet