The perimeter of a rectangular flower garden is 66m and its area is 272m^2. Find the length of the garden.

So we have lengths a and b and are given:

2a+2b = 66 = > a+b = 33 = > a = 33-b

a*b = 272

plug in one into the other:

(33-b) b = 272 = > - b^2 + 33b - 272 = 0

Can be factored as (b-16) (b-17) = 0, if you don't "see" this immediately, use the well known abc formula to find b.

So a=16 and b=17 or vice versa.