SOLUTION: A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square grid with equal number of rows and columns, found that 24 characters were left out. When he

Algebra.Com
Question 170721This question is from textbook Intermediate algebra
: A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square grid with equal number of rows and columns, found that 24 characters were left out. When he tried to add one more row and column, he found that he was short of 25 characters. Can you find the number of characters used by the designer?
Not sure how to start on this one? I am not good at word problems
This question is from textbook Intermediate algebra

Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square grid with equal number of rows and columns, found that 24 characters were left out. When he tried to add one more row and column, he found that he was short of 25 characters. Can you find the number of characters used by the designer?
---------------------------------
Original arrangement DATA:
Let the number or rows and columns be "x"
# of characters is x^2 + 24
------------------------------
Changed arrangement DATA:
Number of rows and columns is "x+1"
# of characters is (x+1)^2 -25
-------------------------------------
EQUATION:
# of characters = # of characters
x^2 + 24 = (x+1)^2 - 25
x^2 + 24 = x^2 + 2x + 1 -25
24 = 2x - 24
2x = 48
x = 24
------------------
Ans: # of characters = 24^2+24 = 600
=========================================
Cheers,
Stan H.

RELATED QUESTIONS

Question: "A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of (answered by stanbon)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by sun1rea)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by rapaljer)
1. A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a... (answered by stanbon)
A designer attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by scott8148)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by stanbon,vleith)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by stanbon)
1. A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)
A designer, attempting to arrange the characters of his artwork in the form of a square... (answered by jim_thompson5910)