### Instruction: The perimeter of a rectangle is 48.  What is the largest possible area of the rectangle?### Response: I know that the area of a rectangle is length times width, and that the perimeter is 2 times length plus 2 times width.
I also know that the largest possible area of a rectangle with a fixed perimeter occurs when the rectangle is a square.
So I want to find the side length of a square with perimeter 48.
I can divide 48 by 4 to get the side length, which is 12.
Therefore, the largest possible area of the rectangle is 12 times 12, which is 144.