Gardening Methods

The length of a rectangular garden is 8 ft less than 2 times its width. If the perimeter of the garden is 44?

I’d appreciate any help that you could offer in helping me figure this out! Thanks!

Start with what you know. There are two sentences here and each offers a piece of information.

The first sentence:
The length of a rectangular garden is 8 feet less than 2 times its width. Mathematically, 2*width – 8 = length.

The second sentence gives the perimeter. Recall what the formula for a perimeter of a rectangle is and use the given information: 2*width + 2*length = 44.

So now you’ve got a 2×2 system of equations that can be solved using your favorite method:
2W – 8 = L
2W + 2L = 44

I’ll use substitution:
from the first equation, 2W = L + 8, so therefore the second equation says:
(L+8) + 2L = 44
3L = 36 reveals that L = 12.

Plugging back into either equation shows W = 10.

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