Grognor: chelz: is the area of a rectangle more the length, or the width?
Thewidth. Changing the width makes a bigger change in the area than changing the length does. (By convention, the width is defined as the smaller of the two dimensions of the rectangle.)
You have resolved the question to the nearest available sane question but that isn’t the answer to the question itself and does not make the question valid.
Come to think of it I am somewhat dubious with answering “is the area of this 1km by 1m rectangle more the 1km or the 1m?” with “the 1m”. That just doesn’t seem right.
The conversation in question.
The width. Changing the width makes a bigger change in the area than changing the length does. (By convention, the width is defined as the smaller of the two dimensions of the rectangle.)
You have resolved the question to the nearest available sane question but that isn’t the answer to the question itself and does not make the question valid.
Come to think of it I am somewhat dubious with answering “is the area of this 1km by 1m rectangle more the 1km or the 1m?” with “the 1m”. That just doesn’t seem right.
Hmmm...
“No.”
Is that better?
Yes! :)
Only if you’re augmenting/cutting by a fixed length.
If you’re using a proportion (e.g. cut either the length or the width in half) then they’re equivalent.
I could also meaninglessly answer that the length is more important, as it will always be equal or bigger.
the key to finding a wrong question is finding that the answer doesn’t help the person who asked it.