Question

The perimeter of a rectangular flower garden is 66m and its area is 272m^2. Find the length of the garden.

Answer 1

So we have lengths a and b and are given:

2a+2b = 66 => a+b = 33 => a= 33-b
a*b = 272

plug in one into the other:

(33-b)b = 272 => -b^2 +33b - 272 = 0

Can be factored as (b-16)(b-17) = 0, if you don't "see" this immediately, use the well known abc formula to find b.

So a=16 and b=17 or vice versa.