Question 58191
A small city park consists of a rectangular lawn surrounded on all sides by a 330m sq. border of flowers 2.5m wide. Find the area of the lawn if the entire park is 5m longer than it is wide.
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I assume they mean the area of the border is 330 sq ft
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Let x = length of the park; (x-5) = the width of the park
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Divide the walkway into 4 narrow rectangles:
2 ea: (x - 2.5) by 2.5  
2 ea: (x - 7.5) by 2.5 
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The area equation:
2[(x-2.5)*2.5] + 2[(x-7.5)*2.5] = 330
2(2.5x - 6.25) + 2(2.5x - 18.75) = 330
5x - 12.5 + 5x - 37.5 = 330
10x - 50 = 330
10x = 330 + 50
10x = 380
x = 38 ft is the length, the width = 33 ft
:
Find the area of the entire park: 38*33 = 1254 sq ft.
Area of the lawn = 1254 - 330 = 924 sq ft.
:
Check it by finding the dimensions of the lawn and finding the area from that:
Lawn dimensions: (38-5) by (33-5):   33 * 28 = 924 sq ft also