Question

A square has a perimeter of 6x - 20 units. What is the value of x?

Answer 1

I solved for the length of one side, which came out to (3/2)x -5.

Let's try something new:

Perimeter = 6x - 20 = 2W + 2L, but here W = L because this is a square.

Then 6x - 20 = 4W = 4x

Then 6x - 4x = 20; 2x = 20; x = 10.

This is a square with side length 10. Its perimenter is thus 4(10) = 40.

Does 6(10) - 20 = 40? Yes. So, x = 10.

Answer 2

The variable “x” is equal to 10.