12 oak boards
60 maple boards
hope this is helpful
To find the perfect square needed, you take the "middle" value and half it, then square it. so in this case, take -6, half it into 3, and square it to get 9. you'll be adding 9 to both sides
Since we know that a - 2 will equal 8, it is safe to assume that 8 + 2 = 10. Therefore a=10.
