Holly has a rectangular garden that measures 12 m wide by 14 m long. She wants to increase the area to 255 m? by increasing the width and length by the same amount. What will be the length (longer dimension) of the new garden? Enter your answer in the box.

255 square meters

Step-by-step explanation:

Present area = 12 * 14 = 168 square meters

The area has to increase by a factor of 255 / 168 = 1.5178571429

Therefore, the width and length are increased by a factor of the

square root of 1.5178571429 = 1.2320134508

So the width becomes

12 * 1.2320134508 = 14.7841614091

and the length becomes

14 * 1.2320134508 = 17.2481883107

That's roughly 14.78 by 17.25 and the area equals

14.78 * 17.25 = 255 square meters