Mrs. Flowers wants a fenced garden that is 21 feet long along the side of the house. The fence will run along three sides of the garden, and the house will be the fourth side...

Question

Mrs. Flowers wants a fenced garden that is 21 feet long along the side of the house. The fence will run along three sides of the garden, and the house will be the fourth side. If she uses at most 26 feet of fence, how wide can she make her garden?

Answer 1

Since this fence is to be 21' long; only 5' is left; so there's not much of a width (2.5').

Answer 2

Of the 26 feet of fencing, 21 feet go into the length.

That leave 5 feet for both of the widths.

Each width is at most 2.5 feet (rather narrow!)