Draw a picture first

Question

A merchant has 20 feet of dividers with which to partition off a rectangular area of floor space for storage of overstock.  Using the corner of the store, the dividers need only form two sides of a rectangle.  Let x denote the length of the partioned aread and let A denote the corresponding area.

 

Write an equation that gives A in terms of x

Answer 1

David,

 

Area = length x width, so if length = x, then width = 20-x ⇒ A = x(20-x)