A farmer needs to build a goat pen. The pen will be 8 meters wide and 13 meters long. The fencing material costs $5.06 per meter. How much will it cost to buy enough fencing material to build the goat pen?

first we have to find the right equation for the problem. a "pen" is an enclosure for animals that is fenced in, meaning we have to find how much fencing we need.

the question gives us two values, 8 meters wide and 13 meters long. we can infer that this "pen" is in the shape of a rectangle meaning two sides will be 8 meters wide and the two others sides are 13 meters long.

this means we will be finding the perimeter of the pen, which is all the sides of a shape added together. for a rectangle the perimeter you use (lenght+width) *2.

when we add the given values we have (8+13)*2 → 21*2 → 42. we need 42 meters of fencing to complete the "pen."

since each meter of fencing is worth $5.06, we multiply the amount of fencing me need by the cost. 5.06*42= 212.52.

this means the farmer will need to spend $212.52 in order to make his goat pen with a perimeter of 42 meters.