A rectangular room has a total area of 140 square feet. The room is 4 feet longer than it is wide. Find the dimensions of the room.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Let the width of the room be x feet. Then the length of the room is (x+4) feet. The area of the room is given by:
x(x+4) = 140
Expanding the product on the left and rearranging the terms, we get:
x^2 + 4x - 140 = 0
This quadratic equation can be factored as:
(x+14)(x-10) = 0
The solutions are x = -14 and x = 10, but since the width of the room cannot be negative, the only valid solution is x = 10. Therefore, the width of the room is 10 feet, and the length is 14 feet. The correct choice is B, which gives the dimensions of the room as 10 feet by 14 feet.

A Rectangular Room Has a Total Area of 140 Square