The area of a patio is 72 square feet. The length of the patio is 1 foot longer than the width. What is the width of the patio?

I know there must be an equation to do this, but there is a simpler way.

Just factor number 72 into two numbers which, when multiplied, equal 72. Two of such numbers are 9 and 8, and you can see that the difference between those two numbers is just 1. So that is the answer to your question - the length of the patio is 9 feet, whereas the width is 8 feet.