The area of a parallelogram is 96 cm squared. the height of the parallelogram is 4 cm less than the length of the base. what is the length of the base?

Area = 96 cm^2
h=L - 4
b =L

Area = L * (L - 4)
96 = L^2 - 4L
0 = L^2 - 4L - 96
Now you just need to guess The answers have to differ by 4 and add to 96. They are relatively close together. The larger one is minus.
0 = (L - 12)(L+8)
The answer is the base = 12
The height = 8
L+8 gives nothing. Lengths don't have - results.