Problema Solution
A garden measuring 12 meters by 19 meters is to have a pedestrian pathway installed all around it, increasing the total area to 399.84 square meters. What will be the width of the pathway?
Answer provided by our tutors
let
x = width of the pathway
then the total area equals to the are of the rectangle with sides 12 + 2x and 19 + 2x that is
by the formula for area of rectangle we have
(12 + 2x)*(19 + 2x) = 399.84
4x^2 + 62x + 228 = 399.84
by solving the quadratic equation we find 2 solution
x1 = 2.4
x2 = -17.9
we consider only the positive one since the width of the pathway is a positive number
thus the width of the pathway will be 2.4 m.