Problema Solution
A 18-ft by 22-ft rectangular swimming pool is surrounded by a walkway of uniform width. If the total area of the walkway is 384 ft^2, how wide is the walkway?
Answer provided by our tutors
First, lets write an equation for the area of the walkway. We can image that the walkway is made up of 3 identical type of parts with all of them having a with of 'x'.
There are 2 parts=18x
There are 2 parts=22x
There are 4 parts=x^2 (the four corners)
Therefore, the total area equals:
area=2(18x)+2(22x)+4x^2
Substituting in the given area (384), we get:
384=36x+44x+4x^2
Solving for x, we get:
x=4ft
This is the width of the sidewalk.