suppose a rectangular patio has an area of 24 ft² and its length is 2 more than its width. What is its length, width, and perimeter?

Answer 1

This is more of a geometry question than a statistics question, but I'll help out either way! First, remember the formula for area of a rectangle is length * width (l*w). So to start with, we have:

l * w = 24 ft²

Next, we're given the additional information that length is equal to width + 2. So:

l = w + 2

We can do this one of two ways: intuition or the "correct" book solution. I'm going to presume they're not expecting you to go through the quadratic equation to solve this given the relative simplicity of the question text. So we can look to intuition instead.

What integers, when multiplied together, equal 24?

24 * 1

12 * 2

8 * 3

6 * 4

From here, we can find a pair that fit into the 2nd equation (l = w +2). Once you find that, you can use that length and width to find the perimeter. (Remember, the perimeter is just the total length around the perimeter of the rectangle... in other words, add up all four sides.)

Best of luck!