kmieciakp is correct about the formula for the area of a square or rectangle. It is Length x Width, NOT 2L + 2W, which is the formula for the perimeter.
I thought it might be useful to explain how you can figure out the length and width in this problem.
You know three things:
1) the large figure is a square, which means all 4 sides are the same length
2) the parallel cuts are 6 inches apart
3) the 3 rectangles made by the cuts are the same area.
We are all assuming that the cuts are parallel to one side of the square, since we don't have the drawing. I think this would have to be the case for the rectangles to be the same.
Since the 3 rectangles are the same area, and they all have a length equal to the length of the square, you can conclude that the width of all three rectangles also has to be the same. We know the distance between the cuts is 6 inches, so all three rectangles have to have a width of 6 inches.
The three rectangles take up the whole area of the big square, so the width of the square has to be 6 + 6 + 6 = 18.
Since the big figure is a square, the length and width have to be the same.
So, the area of the square is 18 inches x 18 inches, which equals 324 square inches.
You did not need to do the conversion into square feet that ladyvols and kmieciakp did -- your problem says the answer should be in square inches.
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