Jillian is trying to save water, so she reduces the size of her square grass lawn by 8 feet on each side. The area of the smalle
r lawn is 144 square feet. In the equation (x – 8)2 = 144, x represents the side measure of the original lawn. What were the dimensions of the original lawn?
First I just drew out two squares, one was the first un-cut square and the second is the cut one. Since we know that the area of the smaller square is 144, and Area is just side^2 , we know that all the sides of the smaller square are 12. Now, all we have to do is add 8 to 12 to get the original lawn. The original lawn was a 20 x 20 ft lawn.
