A rectangle has an area of (x2 − 17x + 72) square units. Since the area of a rectangle is determined using the formula, A = lw, what could be the length and width of the rectangle?

Factor the area expression by finding two numbers whose product is 72 and whose sum is −17. Those numbers are −8 and −9, so x² − 17x + 72 = (x − 8)(x − 9). Since area equals length times width, the rectangle could have length (x − 8) units and width (x − 9) units.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.