Teresa's Tiles
By Kyle Cato-Jacobs
Problem
Teresa is going to put down ceramic tiles on her bathroom floor. She has selected square tiles that are 4 inches on each side. These are the ind of tiles that can be placed right next to each other without leaving additional space for grout. At The Home Station,she learned how to cut the tiles in case she needs any fractional pieces to cover her floor completely.
Part 1: How many tiles will she need to buy to cover her floor? How many tiles will she have to cut in order to cover the entire space?
She will need to buy 189 tiles to cover her floor and she will need 185 tiles to cut because when you multiply 60 by 28 you get 1,680 and when you multiply 32 by 42 you get 1,344. When you add them up you get 3,024. Then when you divide it by 16 you get 189. Finally, when you subtract 189 by 4 you get 185.
Part 2: What size, using whole numbers,of the largest square tile that could be used to tile the entire floor with no cut pieces?
4 because that's how many tiles it takes to cover the floor in a row