Question

Maggie has 62 feet of border to enclose a rectangular garden. If she wants the width to be 9 feet shorter than the length, what are the dimensions of her garden?

Answer 1

To determine the dimensions of Maggie's garden, we set up equations using the perimeter and the relation between length and width. The length turns out to be 20 feet and the width is 11 feet.

Step-by-step explanation:

Maggie has 62 feet of border to enclose a rectangular garden with the width being 9 feet shorter than the length. To start, we need to set up two equations using the perimeter of the rectangle and the relationship between its sides.

Let the length of the garden be represented by L and the width be represented by W. According to the problem, we know that:

• W = L - 9 (since the width is 9 feet shorter than the length)
• Perimeter = 2L + 2W = 62

Substitute the first equation into the second to get:

2L + 2(L - 9) = 62

2L + 2L - 18 = 62

4L = 80

L = 20

Now that we have L, we can find W:

W = L - 9 = 20 - 9 = 11

So, the dimensions of Maggie's garden are 20 feet in length and 11 feet in width.