Question 157036
The area of a rectangle is 24 square meters. Find the length and width of the rectangle if its length is 2 meters greater than its width.
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Let w = width of rectangle
then from: "its length is 2 meters greater than its width" we get
w+2 = length of rectangle
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We know that the area of any rectangle is: (length * width) AND
the problem tells us that the area is 24 sq meters.
From which we derive our equation:
w(w+2) = 24
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w^2 + 2w = 24
w^2 + 2w - 24 = 0
factoring we get:
(w+6)(w-4) = 0
Solutions for w={-6,4}
We can throw out the negative answer because it doesn't make sense.
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Therefore:
width = 4 meters
length = w+2 = 4+2 = 6 meters