The perimeter of a rectangle is 36 feet. The length is 2 less than 3 times the width. What is the length? What is the width?

Automatically, you can rule out 13 and above, as they are way too large. 12 can be ruled out too, because 12•3-2=34, and 12+34 is above 36. What if the length is 10? 10+2=12, 12:3=4. 10+4 is too low. If the width is 8, 8•3=24, 24+8=32. So close! Let's bump it up to 9. 9•3=27, 27-2=25. 25+9=34. Just one more! If the width is 10, 10•3=30, 30-2=28, 28+10=38. 9.5 should work. 9.5•3=28.5. 28.5-2=26.5. 26.5+9.5=36. There's your answer! The width is 9.5 and the length is 26.5.