Squares

Consider a rectangle http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?l units long, and http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?w units wide and the http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?lw unit squares found in it. A diagonal is drawn from one corner to the opposite. The diagonal cuts through certain unit squares. Find in terms of http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?l and http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?w the number of unit squares that are cut through.

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Originally Posted by usagi_killer

Consider a rectangle http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?l units long, and http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?w units wide and the http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?lw unit squares found in it. A diagonal is drawn from one corner to the opposite. The diagonal cuts through certain unit squares. Find in terms of http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?l and http://stuff.daniel15.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?w the number of unit squares that are cut through.

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Isn't it half of the area of the rectangle?
Number of units squares= lw/2

JoanF is correct.

If you think about it, the AREA of the rectangle is . If you draw a diagonal line through the rectangle, you are effectively cutting the rectangle in half.

Therefore, the area is divided by 2, i.e.