document.write( "Question 7208: the width of a rectangle is 3 inches less than its length. the area of the rectangle is 340 square inches. what are the length and width of the rectangle?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #3981 by prince_abubu(198) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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\"The width of the rectangle is 3 inches less than it's length\" translates to w = l - 3. The length is longer, so it needs to be knocked off by 3 to equal the shorter w.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Since l*w = area, our equation will be $\"+l%28l+-+3%29+=+340+\"$ which is expanded to $\"+l%5E2+-+3l+=+340+\"$ . We need to transfer the 340 to the left side so that the right side will be equal to zero. We now have $\"+l%5E2+-+3l+-+340+=+0+\"$ \r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "We now have to factor that equation so that it will look like a (x ą ?)(x ą ?) = 0. This is a bit tough. What times what = 340 whose sum or difference gives you the -3? It turns out to be -20 and 17 after trial and error. So, our equation now should be $\"+%28l-20%29%28l%2B17%29+=+0+\"$ .\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "As you can see, the solutions are 20 and -17, since either value, when plugged in, will make the equation true. BUT, he have to throw out the -17 because it's negative, and you can't have a negative measure.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "So the length turned out to be 20 inches. The width, then, if 3 inches shorter, would be 17 inches. \n" ); document.write( "

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