Question

Steve has 120 feet of fence to make a rectangular kennel for his dogs. He will use his house as one side. Write an algebraic expression for the kennel’s length.

Short answer

Algebraic expression for the kennel’s length is $2l+w=120$.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given Information.

Steve has 120 feet of fence. He uses his house as one side.

Let

w = width of house/width of kennel

l = length of kennel

Step 2. Solution.

The total length of kennel is length + length + width = 120

$\begin{array}{l}\text{length}+\text{length}+\text{width}=120\\ \Rightarrow 2l+w=120\\ \Rightarrow w=120-2l\end{array}$

So, algebraic expression for the kennel’s length is $2l+w=120$