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Advanced Math / Nonlinear functions Difficulty: Hard

A landscaper is designing a rectangular garden. The length of the garden is to be 5 feet longer than the width. If the area of the garden will be 104 square feet, what will be the length, in feet, of the garden?

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Explanation

The correct answer is 13. Let w represent the width of the rectangular garden, in feet. Since the length of the garden will be 5 feet longer than the width of the garden, the length of the garden will be w plus 5 feet. Thus the area of the garden will be w times, open parenthesis, w plus 5, close parenthesis. It is also given that the area of the garden will be 104 square feet. Therefore, w times, open parenthesis, w plus 5, close parenthesis, equals 104, which is equivalent to w squared, plus 5 w, minus 104, equals 0. Factoring this equation results in open parenthesis, w plus 13, close parenthesis, times, open parenthesis, w minus 8, close parenthesis, equals 0. Therefore, w equals 8 and w equals negative 13. Because width cannot be negative, the width of the garden must be 8 feet. This means the length of the garden must be 8 plus 5, equals 13 feet.