SOLUTION: John has a 12 meter by 9 meter flower garden. He wants to build a gravel path of uniform width along the inside of the garden on each side so the result garden will have half the

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Question 374616: John has a 12 meter by 9 meter flower garden. He wants to build a gravel path of uniform width along the inside of the garden on each side so the result garden will have half the area of the original garden. What will be the width of the gravel path?
Answer by mananth(16946) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Flower gardem 9 by 12
area = 108 sq.m
..
1/2 the area = 54 sq.m
..
let the width og gravel path be x m
..
width of garden = 9-x
length = 12-x
..
108-(9-x)(12-x)=54
108-(108-21x+x^2=54
x^2-21x-54=0
x^2-18x-3x+54=0
x(x-18)-3(x-18)=0
(x-18)(x-3)=0
x=18 OR 3
..
width = 3 m
...
m.ananth@hotmail.ca