the area of a rectangular garden is 120 square meters. the width is 3 meters longer than 1/3 of the length. find the legth and the width of the garden.

Answer 1

length --- x
width ---- x/3 + 3

x(x/3 + 3) = 120
x^2/3 + 3x - 120 = 0
x^2 + 9x - 360 = 0
(x-15)(x+24) = 0
x = 15 or x = -24, but x > 0

the length is 15
width = 15/3 + 3 or 8

check (8)(15) = 120
3 more than 1/3 of 15 gives us 8