SOLUTION: The length of a rectangle is three inches more than the width. The area of the rectangle is 270 inches. Find the width of the rectangle.

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Question 15661: The length of a rectangle is three inches more than the width. The area of the rectangle is 270 inches. Find the width of the rectangle.
Answer by pwac(253) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Width=x
Length=x+3
x(x+3)=270 Multiply bracket and rearrange gives:
x%5E2%2B3x-270a quadratic that can be solved using quadratic formula:
x=%28-b%2B-sqrt%28b%5E2-4%2Aa%2Ac%29%29%2F2%2Aa%29hope you are familiar with this, looks daunting but easy to use.Plug in your values:a=1,b=3 and c=-270.
Gives two values for x
x=15 and x=-18
Obviously your answer is x=15inches(width)
Pete