Calculating Area Question

[dietcoke]

My grandson missed the following question on his homework:
A red sheet of paper is 8 inches by 12 inches. A green piece of paper is 3 inch square. The green piece of paper is put in the middle of the red sheet. How much greater is the red area than the green area.

We did 8 x 12 for 96 square inches. Then we did 3 x 3 for 9 square inches. Our answer was the red sheet was 87 square inches greater than the green. This was marked wrong.

The other available answers are: 78, 28, 14 and 9.

Where did we go wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Quaid]

A red sheet of paper is 8 inches by 12 inches. A green piece of paper is 3 inch square. The green piece of paper is put in the middle of the red sheet. How much greater is the red area than the green area.

We did 8 x 12 for 96 square inches. Then we did 3 x 3 for 9 square inches. Our answer was the red sheet was 87 square inches greater than the green. This was marked wrong.

The other available answers are: 78, 28, 14 and 9.

Where did we go wrong?

Hi diet coke:

You considered the areas of the sheets separated; they want you to to leave the green piece on the red sheet, when calculating the red area.

In other words, the question may be interpreted the same as, "How much greater is the exposed red area than the green area?"

Cheers

 

[HallsofIvy]

My grandson missed the following question on his homework:
A red sheet of paper is 8 inches by 12 inches. A green piece of paper is 3 inch square. The green piece of paper is put in the middle of the red sheet. How much greater is the red area than the green area.

We did 8 x 12 for 96 square inches. Then we did 3 x 3 for 9 square inches. Our answer was the red sheet was 87 square inches greater than the green. This was marked wrong.

The other available answers are: 78, 28, 14 and 9.

Where did we go wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Repeating what the others said: the red paper is 87 square inches larger than the green piece of paper but that is NOT what is being asked. After the green paper is placed on top of the red paper the "red area" is now 87 square inches. That area is how much larger than the green?

 

[stapel]

A red sheet of paper is 8 inches by 12 inches. A green piece of paper is 3 inch square. The green piece of paper is put in the middle of the red sheet. How much greater is the red area than the green area..

Are you taking into account that they're asking about the displayed area, rather than the area of the underlying red sheet? So you need to subtract the green area from the red (total) area to get the red (visible) area, and then take the difference of the green (visible) area and the red (visible) area.