SOLUTION: Could you please help me with figuring out how to do this? The length of a top of a board is 6m greater than width. The area is 72m^2. Find the diminsions for width of board and

Question 149613: Could you please help me with figuring out how to do this?
The length of a top of a board is 6m greater than width. The area is 72m^2. Find the diminsions for width of board and length of board.
Thank you for any help.
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, stanbon:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let L=length and W=width

Since the "length of a top of a board is 6m greater than width", this means that the first equation is . Also, since the "area is 72m^2", this tells us that or

Start with the given equation.

Plug in and .

Distribute

Subtract 72 from both sides.

Let's use the quadratic formula to solve for W

Start with the quadratic formula

Plug in , , and

Square to get .

Multiply to get

Rewrite as

Add to to get

Multiply and to get .

Take the square root of to get .

or Break up the expression.

or Combine like terms.

or Simplify.

Since a negative width is not possible, the only possible width is

So the width is 6 m

Go back to the first equation.

Plug in

Add

So the length is 12 m
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

The length of a top of a board is 6m greater than width. The area is 72m^2. Find the diminsions for width of board and length of board.
------------------
Let width be "x" meters.
Then length is "x+6" meters.
----------------
Area = width*length = 72m^2
x(x+6) = 72
x^2+6x-72 = 0
(x+12)(x-6) = 0
Positive solution:
x = 6 meters (width)
x+6 = 12 meters (length)
===========================
Cheers,
Stan H.
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