A’Leila is building a pen for her pet donkey. The pen is a rectangle with one side measuring b yards and the adjacent side measuring a yards. A’Leila knows that . a. Write two different expressions giving the perimeter of the donkey’s pen.
The first expression for the perimeter of the donkey's pen would be: P = 2a + 2b
The second expression for the perimeter of the donkey's pen would be: P = a + a + b + b = 2a + 2b (which is the same as the first expression).
c. Explain why you used that expression to evaluate the perimeter of the donkey’s pen
I used the expression P = 2a + 2b to evaluate the perimeter of the donkey's pen because a rectangle has four sides, and the perimeter is the sum of the lengths of all four sides. In this case, we have two sides of length a and two sides of length b.
To find the total length of all four sides, we multiply the length of each side by 2 and then add them together. So, we have 2a + 2b. This expression accounts for both the length of the sides measuring a yards and the length of the sides measuring b yards, giving us the total perimeter of the pen.