SOLUTION: A square flower bed in Michell's garden is to be enlarged by adding 3 feet on each side. If the larger square has an area of 169 square feet, what is the length of the original squ
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Question 314713: A square flower bed in Michell's garden is to be enlarged by adding 3 feet on each side. If the larger square has an area of 169 square feet, what is the length of the original square?
I am so confuised! Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
What is "confuised" and what does the condition of being whatever that is have to do with determining the measurement of a square?
Let represent the measure of the side of the original square. Then is the measure of the side of the enlarged square.
The area of a square is given by squaring the measure of one side. Hence, is a representation of the area of the enlarged square. Also, we are given that is a representation of the area of the enlarged square. So:
Taking the square root of both sides and discarding the negative root because we are seeking a positive measure of length:
And since we set up the problem so that represents the measure of the side of the original square, that is the answer.
