George is building a fence around a rectangular dog run. He is using his house as one side of the run. The area of the dog run will be 240 square feet. The length of the run is 30 feet, and the width is (30 minus x) feet. The diagram below shows his plan.

Recall the formulas for area and perimeter: A = lw and P = 2l + 2w.

A rectangle labeled Dog run has a length of 30 feet and width of (30 minus x) feet.

How many feet of fencing will George need for the dog run?
22 feet
68 feet
76 feet
82 feet

1 answer

To find out how many feet of fencing George will need for the dog run, we first need to find the width, which is expressed as \( (30 - x) \) feet.

The area of the dog run is given as 240 square feet, and we know that the area is calculated using the formula:

\[ A = l \times w \]

Substituting the given length and width:

\[ 240 = 30 \times (30 - x) \]

To solve for \( (30 - x) \):

\[ 240 = 30(30 - x) \] \[ 240 = 900 - 30x \] \[ 30x = 900 - 240 \] \[ 30x = 660 \] \[ x = \frac{660}{30} \] \[ x = 22 \]

Now we can find the width \( w \):

\[ w = 30 - x = 30 - 22 = 8 \text{ feet} \]

Next, we can calculate the perimeter \( P \) of the dog run that needs the fencing. Since George is using his house as one side, the perimeter is given by the other three sides:

\[ P = 2l + w \]

Substituting the values of length and width:

\[ P = 2(30) + 8 \] \[ P = 60 + 8 \] \[ P = 68 \text{ feet} \]

Therefore, George will need 68 feet of fencing for the dog run. The correct answer is:

68 feet.