Question

Ann's first option is a plot of land adjacent to a current park.

Answer 1

Given:

The equation for the area of the first option is:

$x^2+200x=166400$

Where x is the side length of the current square park.

To find:

The side length of the current square park.

Solution:

We have,

$x^2+200x=166400$

It can be written as:

$x^2+200x-166400=0$

Splitting the middle term, we get

$x^2+520x-320x-166400=0$

$x(x+520)-320(x+520)=0$

$(x-320)(x+520)=0$

$x=320,-520$

We know that the side length of a park cannot be negative. So, the only possible value of x is 320.

Therefore, the most direct method to solve the given equation is splitting the middle term and the side length of the current square park is 320 meters.