Question

The length of a square is increased by 2 inches. The perimeter of the original square is ten inches more than the length of one side of the larger square. What is the length, in inches, of each side of the larger square?
A. 4 2/5
B. 6
C. 2 2/5
D. 4

Answer 1

Let x be the length of one side of the smaller square
Let y be the length of one side of the larger square
4x would be the perimeter of the smaller square, as it has 4 sides
Therefore 4x = y + 10, as the perimeter of the smaller square is 10 inches bigger than one side of the larger square.
We're going to solve this question using simultaneous equations. This means we need another equation to compare the first one to.
Since we know that one side of the larger square is 2 inches bigger than the first one, we can make the equation
y = x + 2
Know that we know the value of y in terms of x, we can introduce this value to the original equation to find:
4x = (x + 2) + 10
Therefore:
4x = x + 12
3x = 12
x = 4
Now that we know the size of the sides on the smaller square, we can figure out the size of the larger square by using our second equation (y = x + 2)
y = 4 + 2
y = 6
Therefore, the length of each side of the larger square is B.6