Question

A bookcase is to have 5 shelves including the top. The height of the bookcase is to be 3 feet more than the width and only 20 feet of lumber is available. Use an equation to determine the width and height of the bookcase?

Answer 1

The width and height is 1.375 and 4.375 respectively

Explanation:

The computation of the width and height of the book case is shown below:

Let the width be w

And, the height be h

So, the following equations should be made

5w+3h=20 ......(i)

h = w + 3......(2)

Now

put the value of h in equation (1)

5w + 3(w + 3) = 20

5w + 3w + 9 = 20

8w = 20-9

8w = 11

w = 11 ÷ 8

= 1.375

And, the height would be

= 1.375 + 3

= 4.375