Use a strategy to solve this problem. (Note: I seriously need help and this is due on Sunday!!)Ian is given some red licorice that is wrapped in a coil. Upon flattening the licorice, Ian discovers that the total length is 60 cm. He then cuts the licorice into two pieces so that the ratio of the lengths of the two pieces is 7:3. Each piece is then bent to form a square. What is the total area of the two squares?

You may feel somewhat overwhelmed right now, because this question is giving the reader lots of information and tasks in a short paragraph. Let's break it down into pieces.

1. First, let's find the ratio of the lengths.

Since the ratio is 7 to 3, we can find the length of each licorice piece by setting its proportion over 10, since that is the sum of the ratio. Thus, one licorice piece has a length of 60 * 7/10 = 42 cm and the other has a length of 60 * 3/10 = 18 cm.

2. Now, let's create our squares.

Each piece is bent to form a square. In other words, the pieces is split into 4 equal sides. Thus, we can divide our lengths by 4. The first piece of licorice made into a square has side lengths of 42/4 = 10.5 cm. The second piece of licorice has side lengths of 18/4 = 4.5 cm.

3. Finding the area of our squares.

Now, all we need to do is find the sum of the areas of the squares. The first square has an area of [tex]10.5^2 = 110.25[/tex] cm^2 and the second square has an area of [tex]4.5^2 = 20.25[/tex] cm^2. Thus, our answer is 130.5 cm^2.