SOLUTION: Wally Beige has painted a rectangular mural that is 8 ft tall and 12 ft wide. He plans to paint a border of equal width all the way around the outside of the mural. To end up with

Question 1174527: Wally Beige has painted a rectangular mural that is 8 ft tall and 12 ft wide. He plans to paint a border of equal width all the way around the outside of the mural. To end up with a border that has an area of 224
square ft, find the width of the border.
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, josgarithmetic:
Answer by ikleyn(52786) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Wally Beige has painted a rectangular mural that is 8 ft tall and 12 ft wide. He plans to paint a border of equal width
all the way around the outside of the mural. To end up with a border that has an area of 224 square ft, find the width of the border.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is strange to me to read it, because, according to the description,

the partial area of 224 square feet is greater than the whole area of 8*12 = 96 square feet.

It is absurdist (if not to say worst) way to describe a problem.

It recalls me a report from a mad-house, where one of personages/habitants
stated that inside of the Earthen sphere, there is another globe even greater diameter.

This passage is from one well known classic humoristic literature work,
and it is a FULL analogue to what I see in this post.

Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
uniform width of border, u
total area of border and mural,
area JUST the border, -------simplify and solve this.
.
.
.

RELATED QUESTIONS
An artist intends to paint a 45-square-foot rectangular mural on a wall that is 13 feet... (answered by josgarithmetic)
A mural is to be painted on the wall that is 15m long and 12m high. A border of uniform... (answered by ikleyn)
joe wants to paint a rectangular region of a wall with one layer of paint. he has 40 ft... (answered by josmiceli)
How wide a border of uniform width should be added to a rectangle that is 8 ft by 12 ft... (answered by mananth)
your class plans to make a mosaic mural out of 1-inch by 1-inch colored tiles. the... (answered by Tutorteddy.Com)
A homeowner hires a mason to lay a brick border around a rectangular patio that measures... (answered by macston)
A concrete border is constructed around a rectangular flower bed that is 12 ft by 9 ft.... (answered by josgarithmetic)
a landscaper who just completed a rectangular flower garden measuring 11 ft. in length... (answered by mananth)
please help me on this problem! A contractor has been assigned the job of painting the... (answered by solver91311)