Question

One side of a rectangle is five times as long as the other side. If the perimeter is 72 meters, what is the length of the shorter side?

Answer 1

The length is 5x
The width is x

5x+x+5x+x=72
12x=72
x=6

The length of the shorter side is 6 meters

Answer 2

Let's say that the length of the shorter side is x. The longer side is 5 times longer.
Equation: 
Step 1: x
Step 2: 5*x
Step 3: (5x*2)+(2*x)
Step 4: 10x+2x=72
Step 5: 12x=72
Step 6: x=6
So the answer is 6