Question

Alex is making a rectangular garden and wants a fence around it. He wants the length of the garden to be 3 feet longer than the width. 150 feet of fence is all he can afford. What is the greatest possible width he can have for his garden?

Answer 1

Since it's rectangular, there is a length and width. Let the width be w, and the length is then w+3. The total length of the fence is the perimeter, so 150 = 2*w + 2*(w+3) = 4w+6. Solving for w, this becomes w=(150-6)/4 = 144/4 = 36 feet.