A storage shed is in the shape of a square. A builder increases the length of one side of the shed by three feet and decreases the length of an adjacent side by two feet. The shed is now a rectangle with a perimeter of 70 feet. What is the measure of a side of the original shed? [ Only an algebraic solution will be accepted ]

2 answers

at first:
let x be the length of the side of the square.


after the change:
new length = x+3
new width = x-2
perimeter = 2(x+3) + 2(x-2)
= 70

simplify the equation and solve for x