Question

If a ractangle has a length of 2x-1 and width x+5 and has an area of 156 square units, what is x?

Answer 1

(2x-1)(x+5) = 156
That can be rewritten as
2x^2 + 9x - 5 = 156
2x^2 + 9x - 161 = 0
(2x + 23)(x - 7) = 0
Either x = 7 or -23/2 will work.

The answer has to be positive, so it has to be x = 7.

Answer 2

Thanks