Question

Luesuon Help The perimeter of a rectangle is 48 feet and the length is 18 feet. What is the width? Define a variable for the unknown quantity. Write and solve an equation to answer the question. Let w= An equation to represent the situation is V = 48. So, w= The width is (Type integers or decimals.)

Answer 1

The equation for the perimeter of the rectangle is:

$\begin{gathered} l\colon\text{length} \\ w\colon\text{width} \\ P=2l+2w \end{gathered}$

then an equation to find the widht is:

$\begin{gathered} P=2l+2w \\ \Rightarrow P-2l=2w \\ \Rightarrow w=\frac{P-2l}{2} \end{gathered}$

Now, if P=48 and l=18, then we have the following:

$\begin{gathered} w=\frac{48-2\cdot18}{2}=\frac{48-36}{2}=\frac{12}{2}=6 \\ w=6 \end{gathered}$

therefore, the width is 6 feet.