Today’s ACT question of the day is about a certain rectangle.  This rectangle happens to be twice as long as it is wide.

They tell us that the rectangle’s width is 3 inches, and task us with finding the area. Since the area of a rectangle = length times width, our first step is to find the length.

The rectangle is twice as long as it is wide:

2w = l

Since w = 3, l = 6.

3 x 6 = 18 (K)

Think carefully and don’t say this:

w = 2l

That says that the width is twice the length, and would give us an area of 3.5 (thankfully, not an answer choice).