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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Demetrie, a student: Dwayne's garden is triangle-shaped with two equal sides and a third side that is 4 ft more than the length of an equal side. If the perimeter is 49 ft, how long is the longest side? |
Hi Demetrie,
In these algebra problems you sometimes need to decide which quantity is to be the "unknown". I am going to use the length of one of the equal length sides to be the unknown.
Let $L$ be the length of one of the two sides of equal length, in feet. Thus you have 2 sides of length $L$ feet each. The third side has a length $L + 4$ feet. What is the sum of the lengths of the three sides? This sum is the perimeter if 49 feet. Solve for $L$.
Penny
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