The width of a rectangular garage is 8 feet less than the length. How do you express the perimeter of the garage as a function of the length?

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Answer 1 · 2017-02-26T13:29:39

$P = 4(l - 4)$

We can call the length of the garage $l$ .

Therefore the width, or we can call it $w$ , of the garage is $l - 8$ or $w = l - 8$

The formula for the perimeter of a rectangle is:

$P = 2(w + l)$

We can substitute $l - 8$ for $w$ giving:

$P = 2(l - 8 + l) ->$

$P = 2(l + l - 8) ->$

$P = 2(2l - 8) ->$

$P=2(2(l - 4)) ->$

$P = 4(l - 4)$