document.write( "Question 1196090: Cynthia Besch wants to buy a rug for a room that is 19 ft wide and 30 ft long. She wants to leave a uniform strip of floor around the rug. She can afford to buy 476 square feet of carpeting. What dimensions should the rug ​have? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #828795 by greenestamps(13200)\"\" \"About 
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\n" ); document.write( "The difference between the length and width of the room is 30-19=11 feet. Since the strip around the rug is to be of uniform width, the difference between the length and width of the rug must also be 11 feet.

\n" ); document.write( "So find how to factor 476 as the product of two integers whose difference is 11.

\n" ); document.write( "476 = 119*4 = 7*17*4 = 28*17

\n" ); document.write( "ANSWER: The rug should be 28 feet long and 17 feet wide.

\n" ); document.write( "For a formal algebraic solution, we can let x be the width of the uniform strip around the rug, making the dimensions of the rug 30-2x and 19-2x. Then, given the area of the rug as 476 square feet,

\n" ); document.write( "\"%2830-2x%29%2819-2x%29=476\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"570-98x%2B4x%5E2=476\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"4x%5E2-98x%2B94=0\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"2x%5E2-49x%2B47=0\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"%282x-47%29%28x-1%29=0\"

\n" ); document.write( "The width of the uniform strip is either 47/2 = 23.5 feet or 1 foot.

\n" ); document.write( "The 23.5 feet makes no sense, so the width of the strip is 1 foot, making the dimensions of the rug 28 feet by 17 feet.

\n" ); document.write( "But that algebraic solution was much harder than the informal solution shown earlier -- so the formal algebra doesn't give you an easier way to find the answer to the problem.

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