SOLUTION: a builder has designed a rectangular floor area to be 228 square feet. The builders clients want the floor to be 243 square feet, which can be accomplished by adding 2 feet to the

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Question 1107998: a builder has designed a rectangular floor area to be 228 square feet. The builders clients want the floor to be 243 square feet, which can be accomplished by adding 2 feet to the width and 1 foot to the length of the original plans. What are the dimensions of the floor in the original plans?

Answer by Theo(13342) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
i don't believe there is a solution to this.

i tried solving algebraically and then i tried solving graphically and both times i got no solution.

algebraically i got complex roots.

graphically i got no intersection.

i then used excel to see if i could find the minimum increase in area when i add 2 to one of the dimensions and i add 1 to the other dimension.

excel said minimum area with the increased dimensions was somewhere around 272.8.

i then took the square root of 228 and added the square root of 2 to it and then squared the result and i got (sqrt(228) + sqrt(15))^2 = 272.708313.

this appears to be the minimum area increase which means that 243 is not possible given the requirements of the problem.

my guess is that there is no solution to this problem as presented.