Dianna's dog pen is 2 feet wide by 18 feet long. she wants to change the dimensions of the pen but keep the area the same. the area of the pen is 36 square feet. which dimensions could she use?

because linear equations are a lot simpler than quadratics equations, and linear equations formula is a lot easier to memorize. that's why i think they're harder.

answer

d. 10

explanation

the distance from point y to wx is the height of the triangle.

using pythagoras theorem,

group similar terms to get,

this implies that,

take positive square root of both sides to get,

this implies that,

we have three similar triangles, because each has a right angle and shares an angle.   let's write the angles in order: opposite to short leg, long leg, hypotenuse.

cab similar to bad similar to cbd

or as ratios,

ca: ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

we also know

ac = ad + cd

(ad+cd): ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

(ad+cd)/cb=cb/cd

we have cb=6, ad=5 and seek x=cd.

we reject the negative root and conclude x=4

answer: 4