A rectangle has an area of x3 + 5x2 + 5x – 2 square meters and a width of x + 2 meters. Find its length.

Question

mathstudent55 · Answer

Do you know the formula for the area of a rectangle?

anonymous · Answer

w*h?

mathstudent55 · Answer

Right, but it will be easier if we use the terms the problem uses.

Instead of dealing with a width and a height, we will deal with a length and a width.

The area is:

A = L * W

anonymous · Answer

These are my choices,
	x2 + 5x – 4 meters
	x2 + 7x – 9 meters
	x2 +3x – 1 meters
	x2 + 3x + 1 meters

mathstudent55 · Answer

The problem gives us the area and the width, and it asks for the length.

Let's solve the formula for the length, what the problems is asking for.

$A = L \times W$

We divide both sides by W to isolate L:

$\dfrac{A}{W} = L$

or

$L = \dfrac{A}{W} $

mathstudent55 · Answer

Now we need to do the division:

$A = \dfrac{x^3 + 5x^2 + 5x – 2}{x + 2} $

Now you can do long division of polynomials to find the answer.

mathstudent55 · Answer

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