Question 804759
<font face="Times New Roman" size="+2">


Did you just guess at something that you thought might fit a pattern for this sort of problem or did you actually have some sort of logic behind your attempt at setting this up?  If you did have a logical thought process, I would be very interested to hear what it is.


If the uniform width is *[tex \Large x], then one dimension of the entire quilt <i>after</i> the border has been attached is *[tex \LARGE 5\ +\ 2x] since you are adding *[tex \LARGE x] width to each side.  Likewise, the other dimension must be *[tex \Large 4\ +\ 2x].  Without the border, the area is 4 times 5, or 20 square feet.  Since you intend to add 10 square feet, the entire area has to be 30 square feet.  Hence:


*[tex \LARGE \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ (2x\ +\ 5)(2x\ +\ 4)\ =\ 30]


*[tex \LARGE \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 4x^2\ +\ 18x\ -\ 10\ =\ 0]


Solve the factorable quadratic for the positive root.


John
*[tex \LARGE e^{i\pi}\ +\ 1\ =\ 0]
<font face="Math1" size="+2">Egw to Beta kai to Sigma</font>
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
<div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://outcampaign.org/" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c116811/scarlet_A.png" border="0" alt="The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism" width="143" height="122" /></a></div>
</font>