Question

A rectangular piece of sheet metal is 4 ft longer than it is wide. (see the illustration.) the area of the piece of sheet metal is 60 ft2. find its length and width.

Answer 1

This is the start to the approach that would be taken to get both variables in terms of only one so it can be solved but since the numbers are so small you could easily test out numbers and figure out that it's 6 and 10 feet.

length = width + 4

length * width = 60
(width + 4) * width = 60