ShmoopTube

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Here’s a shmoopy question, comin’ at ya…

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An actor who really, really likes the way he looks would like to prominently display one of his headshots.

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He has an 8x10 inch photo that he wants to put into a wooden frame.

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The total dimensions of the headshot and the frame together are 12 in by 14 in.

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What is the total area, in square inches (in2) of the wooden frame?

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And here are the potential answers...

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This question is testing one thing: Do we know the formula for the area of a plane?

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Wrong plane.

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We’ll have to do some subtracting and be sure we totally understand what they are asking.

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So draw a little picture – it’s THIS area that they are asking us to find and to get

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it, we need to subtract the interior area from the bigger exterior area… i.e. the

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picture’s area from the frame’s area.

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The area for the picture is just 8 times 10 or 80 square inches.

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And the area for the frame is 12 times 14… which gets us 168 square inches.

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So to get that inner area-thing here...

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Subtract 80 from 168 and we get 88 or B.

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As in… “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

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