SOLUTION: A man built a walk of uniform width around a rectangular pool. If the area of the walk is 297 square feet and the dimensions of the pool are 19 X 5 feet, how wide is it? Any hel

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Question 704277: A man built a walk of uniform width around a rectangular pool. If the area of the walk is 297 square feet and the dimensions of the pool are 19 X 5 feet, how wide is it?
Any help you could give me would be great! Thank you!
Answer by KMST(5328) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
x= width of the walk (in feet)
2x%2B5 = width of pool + walk (in feet)
2x%2B19 = length of pool + walk (in feet)
area of pool = 19%2A5 (in square feet)
area of pool + walk = %282x%2B19%29%282x%2B5%29 (in square feet)
area of the walk = %282x%2B19%29%282x%2B5%29-19%2A5 (in square feet)

Our equation is %282x%2B19%29%282x%2B5%29-19%2A5=297
Simplifying:
4x%5E2%2B10x%2B38x%2B19%2A5-19%2A5=297
4x%5E2%2B48x-297=0
x+=+%28-48+%2B-+sqrt%28+48%5E2-4%2A4%2A%28-297%29%29%29%2F%282%2A4%29+
x+=+%28-48+%2B-+84%29%2F8+
Since only a positive solution makes sense
x=%28-48%2B84%29%2F8 --> x=highlight%284.5%29
The walkway is 4%261%2F2 feet wide.