Find the new dimension of the lot.

Question

A corner lot that originally was square lost 185 m² of area when one the adjacent streets was widened by 3 m and the other side was widened by 5 m. Find the new dimension of the lot. (Let x=the length of a side of the original square lot)

Answer 1

First, we know that x is the side of the original lot. We lose 3 meters on one side, then we lose 5 meters on the other side. We know that the area of what was lost is 185 m^2. That area will be 3 times x added to 5 times x-3 (because that side is no longer x, because we lost 3 meters of it already).

 

That gives us the equation below:

3x + 5(x-3) = 185

 

Solving for x will give us the original length of each side of the lot. Then all we have to do is subtract 3 from one side and 5 from the other.