If the area of a rectangle is represented by x^2 + 27x – 124, then which expression represents a side length of the rectangle?

Answer 1

You simply need to find two factors that multiply to get the given expression. (It's no different that saying a rectangle has sides of 5 and 6, which gives an area of 30)

x^2 + 27x – 124

From the signs, we know that the center term is a difference---the template looks like this:

(x + ___)(x - ___)

List the factors of 124: 2,62 4,31 31 - 4 = 27, so the factors are:

(x + 31)(x - 4)