Kathy has 48 meters of fencing to build a pen for her llama. She wants the pen to be in the shape of a rectangle. If two sides are going to be 15 meters long, how wide will the pen be?
Let's assume the width of the pen is w meters.
Since the pen is in the shape of a rectangle, it has two sides of length 15 meters and two sides of width w meters.
To find the perimeter of the rectangular pen, we add up all the sides:
15 + 15 + w + w = 48
Simplifying this equation:
30 + 2w = 48
Subtracting 30 from both sides:
2w = 18
Dividing both sides by 2:
w = 9
Therefore, the width of the pen will be 9 meters.