Question
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Find the dimensions of a rectangle with a perimeter of 180 feet that has the maximum area.
The side lengths are feet.
(Use a comma to separate answers as needed.)

Ask by Reed George. in the United States
Mar 24,2025

Upstudy AI Solution

Tutor-Verified Answer

Answer

The side lengths are 45, 45 feet.

Solution

Let be the length and be the width of the rectangle.
  1. The perimeter is given by:
    Dividing both sides by 2:
  2. Express in terms of :
  3. The area of the rectangle is:
  4. To maximize the area, we recognize that the quadratic opens downward, so its maximum occurs at the vertex. The -coordinate of the vertex is given by:
  5. Substitute back to find :
The rectangle with maximum area under the given perimeter is a square with side lengths feet.
The side lengths are .

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Extra Insights

To maximize the area of a rectangle with a given perimeter, we can use the relationship between the dimensions. For a rectangle, the perimeter is given by the formula , where is the length and is the width. Given that feet, we have:
Now, the area of the rectangle is given by . Substituting into the area formula gives:
This is a quadratic function that opens downward (the coefficient of is negative), so its maximum value occurs at the vertex. The vertex can be found using the formula , where . Here, and :
Thus, feet and substituting back to find :
The side lengths are feet.

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