SOLUTION: I have been out of school for 20 years and trying to help my daughter with her homework, and I need help. The problem is: I have $850 to replace a patio. I'm making a square

Question 1824: I have been out of school for 20 years and trying to help my daughter with her homework, and I need help.
The problem is: I have $850 to replace a patio. I'm making a square concrete patio with a brick border that is 8 inches wide around the outer edge of the patio and the total lenght of a side is 2X inches. Draw a diagram and write a polynomial for the area of the floor of the patio not including the brick. Assume that X is equal to 10.''.

Answer by longjonsilver(2297) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
this question is very odd...you are given info that you cannot use...the $850 and the "assume x=10" bit. Are you sure there is not more to this?
anyway... draw a square to represent the patio then draw a slightly larger one around it to reperesent the brick border.
the larger square has length 2x, so the shorter square must have length 2x less 2 lots of bricks, ie less 16 inches...so the patio side has length (2x-16) and therefore the area is given by

cheers
Jon.