The perimeter of a parallelogram is 32 meters and the two shorter sides each measure 4 meters. What is the length of each of the longer sides?

1 Answer
Dec 20, 2015

length of each longer side#=12# #m#

Explanation:

Since a parallelogram has #4# sides, this means that we can represent the length of one longer side as #color(orange)x# and the length of two longer sides as #color(green)(2x)#. These variables can be written into an equation where the lengths can be solved for. So:

Let #color(orange)x# be the length of one longer side.

#4+4+color(orange)x+color(orange)x=32#
#8+color(green)(2x)=32#
#8# #color(red)(-8)+2x=32# #color(red)(-8)#
#2x=24#
#2xcolor(red)(-:2)=24color(red)(-:2)#
#color(orange)x=12#

#:.#, the length of each of the longer sides is #12# #m#.