SOLUTION: Mary's living room is 12'x20'. She wants to buy a carpet that will leave an equal border on all sides. If the area of the border is to be 1/3 of the area of the carpet, how big a c

Question 988568: Mary's living room is 12'x20'. She wants to buy a carpet that will leave an equal border on all sides. If the area of the border is to be 1/3 of the area of the carpet, how big a carpet should Mary buy?
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, Timnewman:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let u be the size of the border's width at all four sides.
The carpet area would be ;
The room area is ;
The border area is .

Border area must be one-third the area of the carpet:

Let me skip a couple of steps...

-
Use formula for general solution of quadratic equation. Can you finish this?

Discriminant is... .
The form you want is .
Answer by Timnewman(323) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hi dear,
Since her room measure 12*20,
Area of her room=12*20
=240sqrt unit.
If area of the border is 1/3 area of the room.
Then,
Area of the border=240/3
=60squt sunit
Area of the carpet mary will buy =240-60
=180squrt unit
The mearsure of area of carpet to be buy is 180squrt unit.
HOPE THIS HELPS?
::TIMNEWMAN::
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