SOLUTION: Al paints with watercolors on sheet of paper 20 in widw by 15 in high. He then places this sheet on a mat so that a uniformily wide stip of the mat shows all around the picture. Th

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Question 45209: Al paints with watercolors on sheet of paper 20 in widw by 15 in high. He then places this sheet on a mat so that a uniformily wide stip of the mat shows all around the picture. The perimeter of the mat is 102 in. How wide is the strip of the mat showing around the picure???
Answer by tutmath(14) About Me  (Show Source):
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Let the strip of mat showing around the picture be x inches wide.
Now the width of the picture is 20 inches. Mat strip x inches wide will be seen on BOTH sides of the picture. So the width of the mat will be
20 + x + x = 20 + 2x
Similarly the height/length of the picture is 15 inches. Mat strip x inches wide is seen on the top as well as bottom of the picture. So the total height/length of the mat is 15 + x + x = 15 + 2x
Now perimeter of the mat is 120 inches = 2 times (width + height)
that is
2 (20 + 2x + 15 + 2x) = 120
35 + 4x = 60
4x = 25
x = 6.25 inches
Width of the mat is 6.25 inches
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