María plans to enclose a rectangular area of her yard using the
16-foot side of her storage shed as one side of the enclosure,
as shown above. If she uses 64 feet of fencing to complete the
enclosure, what will be the length, x, of the enclosure?
One side of the fencing must be 16 feet.
(64 - 16)/2 = x
48/2 = x
24 = x
To find the length, x, of the enclosure, we can use the given information and set up an equation.
Let's assume the width of the rectangular enclosure is y.
We know that one side of the enclosure is the 16-foot side of the storage shed. So, the length (x) of the enclosure would be the remaining side.
We also know that the total amount of fencing used to complete the enclosure is 64 feet.
The formula to calculate the perimeter of a rectangle is P = 2x + 2y, where P is the perimeter, and x and y are the length and width of the rectangle, respectively.
In this case, we have:
16 (one side of the shed) + x (another side of the enclosure) + y (width of the enclosure) + x (remaining side of the enclosure) = 64 (total fencing used)
Simplifying the equation, we get:
2x + y = 48
Now, we need additional information to find the exact values of x and y.