Question

Please help with this question. The length of a rectangle is 5 m more than the width. The area is 176 m^2. Find the length of the rectangle. Show all the works.

Answer 1

In order to solve this, I will set the width equal to W and the length equal to W + 5. We can do this because we know that the length is 5 m more than the width. Because the formula for the area of a rectangle is length * width = area, we can set up this equation.

W * (W + 5) = 176

Now, we solve for W. We start by distributing the W.


`W^(2) + 5W=176`

Next, we subtract 176 from both sides.


`W ^(2) +5W-176=0`

Now, we factor this equation. When factored, our equation becomes:


`(W-11)(W+16)=0`

The answers to this equation are:

W = 11, -16

The length can not be -16 meters, so it has to be positive 16 meters. So, the length of this rectangle is 16 meters.