SOLUTION: Please help me with this problem. Jason is planning to expan a square vegetable garden. If each side of the original garden s increased by 7m, the new total area of the garden will

Algebra ->  Algebra  -> Length-and-distance -> SOLUTION: Please help me with this problem. Jason is planning to expan a square vegetable garden. If each side of the original garden s increased by 7m, the new total area of the garden will      Log On

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Question 41577: Please help me with this problem. Jason is planning to expan a square vegetable garden. If each side of the original garden s increased by 7m, the new total area of the garden will be 144m^2. What is the lenght of each side of the original garden? Thanks
Answer by Earlsdon(6103) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You can start by letting s = the length of the original square garden. The expanded garden will have sides of s+7 meters.
The area of the new garden is:
%28s%2B7%29%5E2+=+144 Find x by taking the square root of both sides.
s%2B7+=+12 Discard the negative solution as length is a positive value. Subtract 7 from both sides.
s+=+5
The side of the original square garden is 5 meters.