Answer:
The answer is 16 cm
Step-by-step explanation:
If the area was 16cm^2 before, then each side was 4 cm long since each side of a square is equal, and the area for a square is the length of the sides squared. The square root of 16 is 4, so that is why the sides were 4 cm. When you make each side 1 cm shorter, they're now all 3 cm. 3^2 is 9, so the new area is 9 square centimeters.
