The owner of an office building is expanding the length and width of a parking lot by the same amount. The lot currently measures 120 feet by 80 feet , and the expansion will increase its area by 4 comma 400 ft squared By how many feet should the length of the parking lot be increased? cap A is equal to l w

Let x be the number of feet added to both the length and width. The new area is (120 + x)(80 + x), and the original area is 120 × 80 = 9,600 square feet. Since the increase is 4,400 square feet, solve (120 + x)(80 + x) = 14,000, which gives x² + 200x − 4,400 = 0 and the positive solution x = 20. The length should be increased by 20 feet, choice C.

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