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,
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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
