The area of a rectangle with a length of a units and a height of b units is (a b) square units.

The area of a rectangle with length a and height 2b is (2ab) square units -- the same as the area of two a by b rectangles combined.

1. Use the space below to sketch a rectangle with length 2a and height 2b.

    

    

2. What is the area of the rectangle you drew above?

 

3. On page 34 of Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus is a picture of a blue square (a special type of rectangle) whose length is a+b units and whose height is a+b units. What is the area of this square?

 

orange	purple
pink	orange

 


4. To the right of the blue square is a subdivided square (sketched above). Find the areas of:
   • The orange rectangles:
   • The purple square:
   • The pink square:
5. If you add the areas of the pieces in the right hand figure, you should get the same value as the area of the left hand figure. Add the areas you found in the previous question and compare the sum to the area of the blue square. Are the two algebraic expressions equivalent?

 

6. What is the area of the large square on the left side of the center of the page?

    

7. What is the area of the small orange square on the left side of the center of the page?

 

8. Explain why the blue and pink regions on the left side of the center of the page combine to form an area of a² - b².

 

 

 

 

9. The blue rectangle on the left side of the center of the page has height (a - b) and width a. What are the dimensions of the pink rectangle in this figure?

 

 

10. The blue and pink rectangles on the right side of the center of the page have the same dimensions as those on the left of the page. Use the formula for the area of a rectangle to find the area of the combined blue and pink rectangles on the right of the page.

 

 

11. Explain how the left and right figures at the center of the page verify the formula a² - b² = (a + b)(a - b).