Louis wants to carpet the rectangular floor of his basement. The basement has an area of 500 square feet. The width of the basement is 1/5 its length.

The correct answer is the length is 10 feet and width is 2 feet respectively.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let length of the rectangular floor of Louis' basement be l feet and width be feet respectively.

Area of the basement floor is given to be 500 square feet.

Therefore according to the given problem,

l ×  = 500

⇒ = 100

⇒ l = 10 ; [length cannot be negative]

⇒ b = 2

Thus the length and width be 10 feet and 2 feet respectively.