square root fencing

Question

Roxanne wants to put a fence around her square flower garden to keep the deer out. Her garden has an area of 87 square feet.

Which is the best estimate for the number of feet of fencing Roxanne needs to enclose her garden?

Answer 1

Hello Kevin!

In this problem, we need to figure out the perimeter of the garden.

We are given the area of the garden to be 87 feet squared. The problem also tells us that the garden is square shaped.

This means that A = S * S = S² where A is area and S is the length of one side of the square. This equation only works for squares.

Plugging in 87 for the area and solving for S, we get sqrt(87) or 9.3 feet.

Finishing the problem: we can now figure out the perimeter of the square garden, which is P = 4S

P = 4(9.3) = 37.2 feet