Question 388202: A rectangle has an area given by A = x2 + 5x + 6
Find an expression for the possible length of the rectangle. Answer by jsmallt9(3758) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Your are given an expression for the area. But you also know that the area of a rectangle is length times width. So the expression you were given, must be equal to the length of the rectangle times its width. This means that by factoring the expression we can see expressions for the length and the width.
Factoring we get (x+2)(x+3). One of these factors is the width and the other is the length. If you believe that lengths are always longer than widths, then the length will be the larger factor: x+3.
Note: the "x" does not represent either the width or length. It is simply a number which the width is 2 larger than and the length is 3 larger than.
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