Mathematics Education Department

Jamila K. Eagles

Problem: There is a flower bed with length 30 and width 24. There is a walkway around the flower bed with area 1/4 the area of the flower bed. What is its width?

 

In general , let Ag= the area or the garden, lg= the length of the garden, and wg=the width of the garden. Similarly, let As= the area of the sidewalk, ls= the length of the side walk, and ws= the width of the sidewalk. We have the following equation

Ag = lg * wg

As = 1/4 Ag

ls*ws= 1/4(lg*wg)

ws = (1/4(lg*wg))/ ls

Using substitution we find that:

ls*ws = (1/4*720)

ls*ws= 180

ws = 180/ls

 

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