SOLUTION: A homeowner hires a mason to lay a brick border around a rectangular patio that measures 8ft by 10 ft. If the total area of the patio and border is 195 ft^2, what is the width of t

Question 1008981: A homeowner hires a mason to lay a brick border around a rectangular patio that measures 8ft by 10 ft. If the total area of the patio and border is 195 ft^2, what is the width of the border?
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If b is uniform width of brick border, x and y are the patio dimensions, A is the total area of combined patio and border, then you have

Patio area only,
total combined,

Solve for b in , and substitute the given values when you are ready. (Maybe the resulting quadratic expression equal to zero is factorable and maybe not.)

----you could keep going purely in symbols, but this is where you might be comfortable in substituting the given values for x,y,A, before continuing.
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