Rhett decides to build a square room for his movie and music collection. If the area of the room is 9x2 − 6x + 1 square feet, what is the length of one side of the room?

(3x + 1) feet
(9x − 1) feet
(3x − 1) feet
(9x + 1) feet

1 answer

To find the length of one side of the square room, we need to determine the side length from the area given, which is \( 9x^2 - 6x + 1 \) square feet.

Since the area of a square room can be expressed as \( s^2 \), where \( s \) is the length of one side, we need to factor the area expression \( 9x^2 - 6x + 1 \).

Let's factor \( 9x^2 - 6x + 1 \). We can look for factors of the quadratic expression.

The expression \( 9x^2 - 6x + 1 \) is a perfect square trinomial:

\[ 9x^2 - 6x + 1 = (3x - 1)^2 \]

Now, to confirm this, we can expand \( (3x - 1)^2 \):

\[ (3x - 1)(3x - 1) = 9x^2 - 3x - 3x + 1 = 9x^2 - 6x + 1 \]

Thus, we have verified that \( 9x^2 - 6x + 1 = (3x - 1)^2 \).

Since the area of the room is \( (3x - 1)^2 \), the length of one side \( s \) is:

\[ s = 3x - 1 \]

Hence, the length of one side of the room is:

\[ \boxed{(3x - 1) \text{ feet}} \]