Final: Area, Modeled

A square garden bed is $x$ meters on each side. The design makes it a rectangle by adding 5 meters to one side and 2 meters to the other. The new sides are $x+5$ and $x+2$.

The area of a rectangle is its length times its width. Write the area as the product of the two sides, before you multiply anything out: $a = \left(x+5\right)\left(x+2\right)$. The equation keeps both sides visible, so you can see where each number comes from.