L What is the width of the garden?

Question

A person had a square garden. Person added 7ft to the length and 3ft to the width. The area of the new garden is 140ft^2

Answer 1

Let x be the side of the original square garden, then, the area of the new garden is

L × W = (x+7)(x+3) = 140

⇒ x² + 10x - 119 = 0

⇒(x -7)(x-17) = 0

⇒ x = 7 or x = -17

 

We choose x = 7 (since negative side of a garden makes no sense)

 

So the width of the new garden is 7+3 = 10 ft