SOLUTION: Suzanne has a rectangular garden which is 49 feet long and 41 feet wide. She has 581 square foot of paving stones, and she wants to build a pathway around the border of the garden,

Question 1138928: Suzanne has a rectangular garden which is 49 feet long and 41 feet wide. She has 581 square foot of paving stones, and she wants to build a pathway around the border of the garden, like the diagram below:
How wide will the pathway be?
(The pathway must be the same width the whole way around the garden)
x= feet
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Suzanne has a rectangular garden which is 49 feet long and 41 feet wide.
She has 581 square foot of paving stones, and she wants to build a pathway around the border of the garden.
How wide will the pathway be?
(The pathway must be the same width the whole way around the garden>
:
Find the area of the garden: 49 * 41 = 2009 sq/ft
:
let x = the width of paving stone border
then the overall dimensions, including the border:
(2x+49) by (2x+41)
Overall area - garden area = paving stone area
(2x+49)*(2x+41) - 2009 = 581
4x^2 + 82x + 98x + 2009 - 2009 - 581 = 0
4x^2 + 180x - 581 = 0
Use the quadratic formula; a=4; b=180; c=-581
I got a reasonable solution of
x = 3.0245 or about 3 ft wide the border

RELATED QUESTIONS
Suzanne has a rectangular garden which is 48 feet long and 35 feet wide. She has 1260... (answered by Alan3354)

Lisa has a rectangular garden which is 23 feet long and 15 feet wide. She has 240 square... (answered by Alan3354)

Clara has a garden that is 7 feet wide and 4 feet long. She has 30 tomato plants to put... (answered by jim_thompson5910,Boreal)

A gardener has a garden that is 20 feet wide and 100 feet long. She wants to have a stone (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)

Laura is making a patio in Her backyard using paving stones. she buys 44 paving stones... (answered by farohw)

Gardening. A gardener has planted a rectangular garden that measures 8 feet by 5 feet. He (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)

a gardener has a garden that is 20 feet wide and 100 feet long. She wants to have a stone (answered by josmiceli)

Steve has a rectangular garden which is 18 feet long and 16 feet wide. He wants to put a... (answered by richwmiller)