Question

A rectangular garden is 8 metres longer than it is wide. if its area is 240m2 , how many metres is the width (ie. the shortest side)?

Answer 1

Area of a rectangle is length by width, width is x, length is x+8
x×(x+8)=240
x²+8x=240
x²+8x-240=0
Use the quadratic formula to solve

`x=\frac{-b±\sqrt{b^(2)-4ac}}{2a} x=\frac{-8±\sqrt{8^(2)-4(1)(-240)}}{2(1)} x=(-8±√(64-4(-240)))/(2)`
`x=(-8±√(1024))/(2) x=(-8±32)/(2) x=(24)/(2) OR (-40)/(2) x=12 OR -20`
It is a distance so can't be negative, so the answer must be 12