Quadratic Word Problems

Question

The length of a rectangle is the width minus 5 units. The area of the rectangle is 24 units. What is the width, in units, of the rectangle?

Answer 1

Damian, word problems are only hard because of the need to translate words into math.

The first step is to name each of the quantities involved:

Let L be the length of the rectangle

Let W be the width

Next translate the words using these names:

Translate “the length is the width minus 5” into:

L = W - 5

I assume you know how to calculate Area...area = length * width.

Translate “the area is 24 units” into 

L * W = 24

 

Now the problem is simply reduced to two equations, such as you’ve dealt with before. Does this help?