The Hewitt family plans to expand their square pool. Each side of the original pool will be increased by 4 meters, and the new total area of the pool will be 361 square meters.

Question

Find the length of each side of the original pool.
a. 16 meters
b. 15 meters
c. 19 meters
d. 12 meters

Answer 1

b. 15 meters

Let x be the length of each side of the original pool.

The original area of the pool is x^2 square meters.

After expanding the pool, each side will be x + 4 meters, and the new total area will be (x + 4)^2 = 361 square meters.

Expanding (x + 4)^2, we get:

x^2 + 8x + 16 = 361
x^2 + 8x - 345 = 0

We can factor this equation as:

(x + 23)(x - 15) = 0

Therefore, x = 15 meters.

So, the length of each side of the original pool is 15 meters.