Question

A rectangular garden has a width that is 5 less than twice its length.

Answer 1

What is the formula for the perimeter of a rectangle? It is 2L + 2W, where L is the length and W is the width. We can always replace the unknown quantity after the word "than" in these types of problems with the variable x. Our problem would then be " a rectangular garden has a length that is five less than twice x." In this case, the unknown quantity after the word "than" is the width. So, if we let x represent the width, then the length can be represented by 2x - 5. Now, we can plug into the perimeter formula. 2(2x - 5) + 2x = 50
The image below shows how to solve this equation.

The perimeter of the rectangle is then 10