SOLUTION: The area of a rectangular garden is 140m2.If its length is 4m more than its width,find the dimensions.

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Question 1185241: The area of a rectangular garden is 140m2.If its length is 4m more than its width,find the dimensions.
Answer by Theo(13342) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
the area is equal to 140 square meters.

area is equal to length * width.

let L equal the length and W equal the width.

you ge t:

L * W = 140

if the length is 4 meters longer than the width, the formula becomes:

(W + 4) * W = 140

simplify to get:

W^2 + 4W = 140

subtract 140 from both sides of the equation to get:

W^2 + 4W - 140 = 0

factor this quadratic equation to get:

(W + 14) * (W - 10) = 0

set each factor equal to 0 and solve for x to get:

W = -14 or W = 10

since W has to be positive, the value of W must be equal to 10.

confirm this is correct by replacing W with 10 in the original equation.

you get (W + 4) * (W) = 120 which becomes:
14 * 10 = 140
since this is true, the value of W = 10 is confirmed to be good.

your solution is:

the rectangle has a length of 14 and a width of 10.