# Introduction to Quadratic Equation

The length of a rectangle is 3 cm more than its width. Its area is equal to 54 square centimeters. What is its length and width?

Solution

Let

x = width of rectangle
x + 3 = length of rectangle

The area of a rectangle is the product of the length and width, so we have

Area= x(x + 3)

which is equal to 54.

Therefore, we can form the following equation:

x(x + 3) = 54.

By the distributive property, we have

$x^2 + 3x = 54$

Finding the value of x

In the equation, we want to find the value of x that makes the equation true. Without algebraic manipulation, we can find the value of x by assigning various values to x. The equation $x^2 + 3x = 54$ indicates that one number is greater than the other by 3 and their product is 54. Examining the numbers with product as 54, we have,

1 and 54
2 and 27
3 and 18
6 and 9.

Note: We have excluded the negative (e.g. (-1)(-54) = 54) numbers since a side length cannot be negative.

Now, 9-6 = 3 which means that the side lengths of the rectangle are 6 and 9. Yes, their product is 54 and one is 3 greater than the other.

In the equation above, subtracting both sides by 54, we have

$x^2 + 3x - 54 = 54 - 54$

$x^2 + 3x - 54 = 0$.

The equation that we formed above is an example of a quadratic equation.

A quadratic equation is of the form $ax^2 + bx + c = 0$, where a, b, and c are real numbers and a not equal to 0. In the example above, a = 1, b = 3, and c = -54.

In the problem above, we got the value of x by testing several values, however, there are more systematic methods. In the next post, we will be discussing one of these methods. These methods are factoring, completing the square, and quadratic formula.

### 1 Response

1. December 22, 2015

[…] the previous post, we have learned about quadratic equations or equations of the form , where a is not equal to 0. In […]