Sabrina is fencing her yard, which is shaped as a rhombus. She used (6x – 7) meters of fencing material for one side and (3x+ 5) meters for the adjacent side.

What is the perimeter of the yard?

Question

Sabrina is fencing her yard, which is shaped as a rhombus. She used (6x – 7) meters of fencing material for one side and (3x+ 5) meters for the adjacent side. 
 
What is the perimeter of the yard?

hero · Answer

Do you have any idea how to begin?

anonymous · Answer

the adjacent side of a rhombus is half the length of the other longer side
right?

hero · Answer

I don't believe we really need to know that to find the perimeter of the rhombus. Are you familiar with what the perimeter of something is?

anonymous · Answer

yes

hero · Answer

So how would you define the perimeter of an object?

anonymous · Answer

the sum of all sides

hero · Answer

Oh, this is interesting. I just realized that we don't know what the perimeter of the object equals. So looks like your approach would be appropriate in this case.

hero · Answer

So, knowing the general rule you just mentioned, what do you believe would be the proper equation setup for this?

hero · Answer

If you don't know, it's okay. I can show you.

hero · Answer

Actually zax, where did you find that rule?

hero · Answer

Because one of the properties of a rhombus is that all of its sides have equal length.

hero · Answer

The proper approach to solving this is to simply 

1. set both sides equal to each other, then solve for x. 
2. Find the length of one side
3. Then multiply the length of one side by four to find the perimeter.

hero · Answer

I assumed that the rule you gave was something you learned in class so I went along with it, but I had never seen it before.