Question 6
a)
The sides of small squares are x and y, therefore the side of the big square is x + y.
The shaded region has an area:
- (x + y)² - x² - y² =
- x² + 2xy + y² - x² - y² =
- 2xy
b)
After the dimension changes the new side lengths are:
Since x and y are integers greater than 1, the minimum value of x is 2 (x = 1 doesn't work as we get negative value of x - 2) and same of y is 3 as y > x.
With this the smallest possible area of the shaded region is:
