One side of a rectangle is 3 inches shorter than the other side, and the perimeter is 54 inches. What are the dimensions of the rectangle?

Question

6782 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2016-03-03T23:59:30

#12 xx 15# inches

Suppose the shorter sides of the rectangle are #t# inches. Then the longer sides are #t+3# inches and the perimeter is:

#2t + 2(t+3) = 4t+6#

So:

#4t+6 = 54#

Subtract #6# from both sides to get:

#4t=48#

Divide both sides by #4# to get:

#t=12#

So the shorter sides of the rectangle are #12# inches and the longer sides #12 + 3 = 15# inches.