Mirror lake elementary school has 168 students and chaperones going on the fifth grade class trip. each bus can hold 54 people. what is the least number of buses needed for the trip?

none of the above.

for one of the equations to be used in the process, there has to be a term in the equation since squared is .

since there is only a term in the first equation, we cannot derive a from completing the square.

solving with completing the square

we have three similar triangles, because each has a right angle and shares an angle.   let's write the angles in order: opposite to short leg, long leg, hypotenuse.

cab similar to bad similar to cbd

or as ratios,

ca: ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

we also know

ac = ad + cd

(ad+cd): ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

(ad+cd)/cb=cb/cd

we have cb=6, ad=5 and seek x=cd.

we reject the negative root and conclude x=4

answer: 4