SOLUTION: Matt wants to buy a rug for a room that is 12 ft wide and 15 ft long. He wants to leave a uniform strip of floor around the rug. He can afford to buy 108 ft2 of carpeting. What

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Geometry -> SOLUTION: Matt wants to buy a rug for a room that is 12 ft wide and 15 ft long. He wants to leave a uniform strip of floor around the rug. He can afford to buy 108 ft2 of carpeting. What      Log On

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Question 836645: Matt wants to buy a rug for a room that is 12 ft wide and 15 ft long. He wants to leave a uniform strip of
floor around the rug. He can afford to buy 108 ft2
of carpeting. What dimensions should the rug have?
may I have the solution with the steps.

Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The solution steps for just the arithmetic is the easier part. The hard part is to analyze and develop the initial equation to solve.

Matt wants the rug to fit inside the 12%2A15%2Aft%5E2 room, and leave the uniform unrugged strip, and the rug should cover 108%2Aft%5E2. Let the width of the unrugged strip around the rug be w. Starting from the 12%2A15 room, removing the area of the empty strip should leave the 108%2Aft%5E2 area.

One dimension of the rug is (12-2w); and the other dimension of the rug is (15-2w). Use a figure, or picture if necessary to understand this. Once you understand, then you're ready to continue.

READY?

RugArea=highlight%28%2812-2w%29%2815-2w%29=108%29
and the rest is left for you to do. Solve for w. Use w to get the rug dimensions.