It must decrease by units.
It must increase by units.
It must decrease by units.
It must increase by units.
Explanation
Correct answer: B.
Choice B is correct. It's given that the ratio of the rectangular region's length to its width is to . This can be written as a proportion: , or . This proportion can be rewritten as , or . If the width of the rectangular region increases by , then the length will increase by some number in order to maintain this ratio. The value of can be found by replacing with and with in the equation, which gives . This equation can be rewritten using the distributive property as . Since , the right-hand side of this equation can be rewritten by substituting for , which gives , or . Therefore, if the width of the rectangular region increases by units, the length must increase by units in order to maintain the given ratio.
Desmos solution:
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Reviewed and rewritten by CookSAT
Why the other choices are wrong
Choice A
Choice A is incorrect. If the width of the rectangular region increases, the length must also increase, not decrease.
Choice C
Choice C is incorrect. If the width of the rectangular region increases, the length must also increase, not decrease.
Choice D
Choice D is incorrect. Since the ratio of the length to the width of the rectangular region is to , if the width of the rectangular region increases by units, the length would have to increase by a proportional amount, which would have to be greater than units.