Stacey has a square piece of cloth. She cuts 3 inches off of the length of the square and 3 inches off of the width. The area of the smaller square is 1 fourth the area of the original square. What was the side length of the original square? cap A is equal to s squared

Let the original side length be x inches. Cutting 3 inches off each side leaves a square with side length x − 3, so (x − 3)² = x²/4. Since side lengths are positive, x − 3 = x/2, which gives x = 6. The original square’s side length was 6 inches.

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