SOLUTION: A piece of copper tubing 60 inches long is cut into two unequal pieces. Each piece is formed into a square frame. If the total area of the two frames are 117 square inches, what

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Question 133123: A piece of copper tubing 60 inches long is cut into two unequal pieces. Each piece is formed into a square frame. If the total area of the two frames are 117 square inches, what is the length of each piece of tubing?
Thanks for your help.
Answer by vleith(2983) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Given: 60 inches of pipe. cut into to pieces. Formed into 2 squares with a total area of 117 sq inches.
Let the first piece be A. Then the second piece = (60-A)
To form a square with perimeter of A, each side must be A/4. So the area of that square is A%5E2%2F16
Likewise, the area of the other frame is %28%2860-A%29%2F4%29%5E2
or %283600+-120A+%2BA%5E2%29%2F16
The sum of the two areas is 117
So
117+=+%28A%5E2%2F16%29+%2B+%283600+-120A+%2BA%5E2%29%2F16
0+=+A%5E2+-60A+%2B+864 factor or use quadratic equation
+0+=+%28A+-24%29%28A+-+36%29
So A is 24 and the other piece is 36.