math help: Help me with my quadratics? - Help.com

Queen-of-Hearts
offline Verified (5 years, 4 months) Visit Queen-of-Hearts's shoutbox
An Undisclosed Location

Help me with my quadratics?

A rectangular skating rink measures 40m by 20m. It is to be doubled in area by extending each side by the same amount. Determine how much each side should be extended to one decimal.

So I’ve been at it for a while now and I keep getting the wrong answer! Here’s my work so far:

Let x represent the number of ms each side was extended by.

lw=A
(40+x)(20+x)=2(20)(40)
800+40x+20x+x^2=1600
x^2+60x-800=0

x=-b+-! -b^2-4ac
2a
x=-(60)+-!(60)^2-4(1)(-800)
2(1)
x=-60+-!3600+3200
2
x=-60+-!6800
2

1. x= -60+82.5
2
x= 22.5
2
x=11.25

2. x= -60 - 82.5
2
x= -142.5
2
x= -71.25 (INAD)

So judging by that, it should be extended by 11.25 ms but the answer is 5.6ms and I can’t think of what I did wrong. Help?

This open post was written 3 years, 5 months ago | V/U/S: 1,168, 3, 2 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


Reciprocity (0) Reciprocation Failure -- The poster has NOT helped anyone else yet!

Since writing this post Queen-of-Hearts may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days. Queen-of-Hearts is a verified member, has been around for 5 years, 4 months and has 64 posts and 144 replies to their name.

Post Tags (3)

Replies (3)

Where were you?

Click and drag to move the map around. FAQ: How we place people on this map »
You can also watch events on Help.com as they happen
Mouse over the map for 2 seconds to see an expanded, interactive view

Queen-of-Hearts offline Verified User (5 years, 4 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Undisclosed Location | 3 years, 5 months ago (1 minute after post)

Also, I couldn’t find a square root symbol so I put an exclamation point. xD
It’s meant to be the quadratic formula.

Quote this reply Report this reply to moderators
Queen-of-Hearts offline Verified User (5 years, 4 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Undisclosed Location | 3 years, 5 months ago (22 minutes after post)

OHHH! I know what I did wrong! The starting formula should be (40+2x)(20+2x)=1600.
Thanks for all the help, guys. -_-

Quote this reply Report this reply to moderators
A Mind Alive offline Verified User (3 years, 5 months) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 5 months ago (22 minutes after post)

Zomg, I so with I had gotten here earlier. This is pretty awesome stuff!

Quote this reply Report this reply to moderators

Invite Others to Help

A logged in and verified Help.com member has the ability to setup a Friends List and invite others to help with posts.