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Amber J. answered • 05/01/19 Bilingual tutor for Spanish, ESL, and Math
In this problem, we need to make sure we know what the word "perimeter" means. The perimeter is the distance around something (Imagine walking around the edge of a swimming pool). What are the dimensions of a rectangle? There are 4 sides, 2 sides represent the length of the garden and 2 sides represent the width. The problem gives us the distance of the 2 shortest sides, which is 4 feet each. The equation for finding the perimeter of a rectangle is simply 2L + 2W or length + length + width + width. Since it gives us 26 as the total perimeter, we can subtract the 2 shorter sides we already know in order to find the 2 longer sides of the rectangle. 26 - (4+4) or 26 - 8 = 18 feet. This 18 feet is the length of both the longer sides of the rectangle PUT TOGETHER. The length of a rectangle is just the measure of one side (the long side) so we need to divide 18 by 2, which will give us 9 as the length of the rectangular flower garden. |