Quadratic Eduation

Question

The length of each side of a square is 3 in. more than the length of each side of a smaller square. The sum of the areas of the squares is

549^2 in^2.

Find the lengths of the sides of the two squares.

Answer 1

The side of the little square is s and the side of the big square is s+3

The area of the little square is s² and of the big square is s²+6s+9.

The total area of the 2 squares combined is 549 (NOTE: I am going to assume your question has a exponent in error!!!!).

Therefore 2s²+6s-540=0

s²+3s-270=0

The quadratic formula gives an extraneous rot and x=15.