Question

I need some help.

A parcel of land is 6 ft longer than it is wide. The diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner is 174ft. What are the dimensions of the parcel?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Let the short side length be x so that the long side length will be x + 6. Then use the Pythagorean theorem:

x^2 + (x+6)^2 = 174^2

2x^2 + 12 x + 36 = 30,276

x^2 + 6 x - 15,120 = 0

That can be factored to
(x + 126)(x - 120) = 0

Take it from there