Question

Jillian is trying to save water, so she reduces the size of her square grass lawn by 8 feet on each side the area of the smaller lawn is 144 square feet in the equation x-8^2=144, xrepresents the side measures the original lawn what were the dementions of the original lawn

Answer 1

20 x 20 is what the dimensions is

Answer 2

Answer: 20 feet by 20 feet.

Explanation:

1. You know that
`x` is the original measure of one side. Since it is a square, all its sides are equal.

2. Therefore, to solve the problem you only need to solve for
`x`, as you can see below:

- You have that:

`(a-b)^(2)=a^(2)-2ab+b^(2)`

- Then, you obtain the following quadratic equation:

`(x-8)^(2) =144\\x^(2)-2(x)(8)+8^(2)=144\\x^(2)-16x-80=0`

- Apply the Quadratic formula to solve it:

`x=\frac{-b+/-\sqrt{b^(2)-4ac}}{2a}\\a=1\\b=-16\\c=-80`

- Then, you obtain:

`x_1=20\\x_2=-4`

3. The dimensions cannot be negative, therefore, the answer is: 20 feet by 20 feet.