Problema Solution

If you are making a picture frame of uniform width for a square picture that has side lengths of 2 feet. The total area of the frame is 5 square feet. What is the length of the sides of the frame?

Answer provided by our tutors

let


w = the width of the frame, w>0


a = 2 ft is the length of the sides of the square picture


a + 2w = 2 + 2w is the length of the sides of the frame


the total area of the frame = total area - the are of the picture


the total area of the frame is 5 square feet:


5 = (a + 2w)^2 - a^2


(a + 2w)^2 - a^2 = 5


(2 + 2w)^2 - 2^2 = 5


by solving we find:


w = 0.5 ft


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2 + 2*0.5 = 3 ft


the length of the sides of the frame is 3 ft.