SOLUTION: I don't fully understand area with squares and how many sides it has.This is a factoring word problem when you have to use the principle of zero. THe question says "If the sides of

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Question 120423: I don't fully understand area with squares and how many sides it has.This is a factoring word problem when you have to use the principle of zero. THe question says "If the sides of a square are increased by 3 inches., the area becomes 64 inches^2. Find the length of a side of the original square." Could you please help me?
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, ankor@dixie-net.com:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let x=side length of original square

Remember the area of any square with side x is:

Now if the side length is increased by 3, then the new side becomes:

So the new area becomes:

Start with the given equation

Plug in A=64 (this is the area of the new square)

Foil

Subtract 64 from both sides

Combine like terms

Factor the left side (note: if you need help with factoring, check out this solver)

Now set each factor equal to zero:
or

or Now solve for x in each case

So our answer is
or

However, since a negative length doesn't make sense, our only solution is

So the original side length is 5 inches

Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If the sides of a square are increased by 3 inches., the area becomes 64 inches^2. Find the length of a side of the original square.
:
Let x = side of the original square
Then
(x+3) = side of the new square with an area of 64 sq/in
:
A simple equation:
(x+3)^2 = 64
:
Conveniently we can find the square root of both sides easily 8*8 = 64, right
x + 3 = 8
x = 8 - 3
x = 5 inches is the length of the side of the original square
:
:
(5+3)^2 = 64, right?
:
:
That was not so hard was it.