Question

1. darius is building a square launch pad for a rocket project. if the area of the launch pad is 121 square centimeters, what is its side length? use the area formula, ( a = s^2 ), and show your work. ( a = 121 , \text{cm}^2 )

Explanation:

Step1: Recall the area formula for a square

The area \( A \) of a square is given by the formula \( A = s^2 \), where \( s \) is the length of a side. We know that \( A = 121 \, \text{cm}^2 \), so we substitute this value into the formula:
\[ 121 = s^2 \]

Step2: Solve for \( s \)

To find \( s \), we take the square root of both sides of the equation. The square root of a number \( x \) is a value \( y \) such that \( y^2 = x \). For \( x = 121 \), we know that \( 11^2 = 121 \) (since \( 11 \times 11 = 121 \)) and also \( (-11)^2 = 121 \), but since the side length of a square cannot be negative, we take the positive square root:
\[ s = \sqrt{121} = 11 \]

Answer:

The side length of the square launch pad is \( 11 \) centimeters.