Question

Stacey has a square piece of cloth. She cuts 3 inches off of the length of the square and 3 inches off of the width. The area of the smaller square is 1/4 the area of the original square. What was the side length of the original square?

Answer 1

6 inchs

Explanation:

Just took test

Answer 2

6 inches

Explanation:

Let the original side of the square be x units.

Then area of the square = x square

When 3 inches is cut from both length and width the square becomes a smaller square with side x-3

New area = area of smaller square = (x-3)(x-3)

Given that smaller square is 1/4 the area of big square

i.e. (x-3)(x-3) = 1/4 (x) (x)

Take square root both the sides

(x-3) = x/2

Or 2x-6 = x

x = 6 inches.