A rectangle is drawn so that the width is 5 feet shorter than the length. The area of the rectangle is 14 square feet. Find the length of the rectangle.
Set up an equation. Make the length x and you can make the width x-5. In order to fir the width is 5 feet smaller than the length. Now the formula for area is length times width. So plug in what you know. x(x-5)=14 distribute the x X^2-5x=14 move the 14 over X^2-5x-14=0 use factoring to figure out (X-7)(X+2)=0 Now x can equal 7 and negative 2 Since the length cannot be negative we get rid of negative 2 So we have x equals 7 plug that in. We get length =7 and width =2
