The width of a rectangle is 5 inches less than twice the length. The area of the rectangle is 700 square inches. What is the length of the rectangle?

To calculate the length of the rectangle we let the length be x in, let width be

(2x-5) inches

The area will be given by:

A=length*width

A=x (2x-5)

but

A=700 in²

thus

700=x (2x-5)

700=2x²-5x

this can be written in quadratic form as:

2x²-5x-700=0

solving the quadratic we get:

x=20 or x=-35/2

since the length cannot be negative then:

x=20 in

thus the width will be:

2*20-5

=40-5=35 inches