Question

An artist wants to frame a square painting with an area of 400 square inches if x is the length of the one side of the painting what equation ca you set up to find the length of a side how many solutions does the equation have?

Answer 1

There is only one solution to the equation.  A quadratic equation has 2 solutions a positive and a negative, but since we are looking for length, the answer can only be postive.  Area= side^2

              400= x^2

         sqrt(400)=x

          20 inches = x  

The length of one side is 20 inches

check: 20*20 = 400, which is the area of the square painting.