SOLUTION: Mr. Blitzer has a planted a vegtable garden filled with chili pepper plants. He dug the garden bed long and narrow to measure 3 feet by 10 feet, so that he could tend more easily t

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Misc -> SOLUTION: Mr. Blitzer has a planted a vegtable garden filled with chili pepper plants. He dug the garden bed long and narrow to measure 3 feet by 10 feet, so that he could tend more easily t      Log On

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Question 360614: Mr. Blitzer has a planted a vegtable garden filled with chili pepper plants. He dug the garden bed long and narrow to measure 3 feet by 10 feet, so that he could tend more easily to his plants. He would like to build a brick patio of equal width surrounding the garden. The area that the bricks cover is 100 square feet. How wide should the patio measure?
Answer by mananth(16946) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
width of garden = 3
length = 10
area = 30 ft^2
..
let the patio width be p
total width will be 3+2p
total length = 10+2p
..
Area of patio = 100 ft^2
...
Total area = (10+2p)(3+2p)
(10+2p)(3+2p)- 30 = 100
30+26p+4p^2-30=100
4p^2+26p-100=0
/2
2p^2+13p-50=0use quadratic formula
discriminant = 569
p1=(-13+sqrt(562))/4
p1= 2.71 feet the width of patio
...
p2= -9.2 negative so ignore
....
m.ananth@hotmail.ca