Problema Solution
The area of a carpet is 144 sq m. If its length is 2 meters less and its width is 5 meters more, the carpet will be a square. Find the dimensions of the carpet.
Answer provided by our tutors
Let 'x' represent the length of the side of the square, x>=0.
Then the length is x + 2 and the width is x - 5.
Since the area equals length multiplied by width we have:
(x + 2)(x - 5) = 144
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click here to see the equation solved for x
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x = 14 m
We need to ignore the negative solution -11 because the length can only be positive.
x + 2 = 14 + 2 = 16 m
x - 5 = 14 - 5 = 9 m
The dimensions of the carpet are: the length is 16 meters and the width is 9 meters.