Question

You are knitting a blanket. You want the area of the blanket to be 24 feet squared . You want the length of the blanket to be 2 ft longer than its width. What should the dimensions of the blanket be?

Answer 1

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Define x:
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Let the width be x.
Width = x
Length = x + 2

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Construct equation:
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x (x + 2) = 24
x² + 2x = 24
x² + 2x - 24 = 0
(x - 4) (x + 6) = 0
x = 4  or x = - 6 (rejected, length cannot be negative)

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Find the length and Width
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Width = x = 4
Length = x + 2 = 4 + 2 = 6

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Answer:  The dimension is 6 feet by 4 feet.
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Answer 2

Think of it this way: x multiplied by a number that is two more than x is y.
So, look at the factors. 3 and 8 wouldn't work, because 8 is 5 longer than 3. 1 and 24 wouldn't work, because 24 is 23 more than 1. 12 and 2 is also not going to work; 12 is 10 more than 2. What you have left is 4 and 6. 6 is 2 more than 4, and they both multiply to get 24.

So, the correct answer is 6 feet long and 4 feet wide.