Question

Suppose the area of a rectangle is represented by the expression 100 – 49. When the expression is fully factored, the factors represent the dimensions of the rectangle. What expressions represent the dimensions of the rectangle?

Answer 1

a - b and a + b.

Explanation:

Let's say the area of a rectangle is represented by the expression 100a^2 - 49b^2.

According to an algebraic formula, a^2 - b^2 = (a - b) * (a + b) = a^2 - ab + ab - b^2.

In this case, the square root of 100 is 10, and the square root of 49 is 7. That means that we have (10a - 7b) * (10a + 7b).

We can check that by doing... (10a - 7b)(10a + 7b) = 100a^2 - 70ab + 70ab - 49b^2 = 100a^2 - 49b^2.

Since it matches to the expression given, the expressions that represent the dimensions of the rectangle are (a - b) and (a + b).

Hope this helps!