A corner lot has dimensions 25 by 40 yards. The city plans to take a strip of uniform width along the two sides bordering the streets to widen these roads. How wide should the strip be if the remainder of the lot is to have an area of 844 square yards? (Round your answer to two decimal places.)

Question

anonymous · Answer

At what point are you getting stuck?

anonymous · Answer

Converting words/details into a equation. Its my nemesis.

anonymous · Answer

Okay, no problem.  Start by determining the area of the lot before construction.  You know the area you need after construction.  Find the difference.  Now, given the lengths of the two sides of the rectangle, you need to find the strip width that would give you that difference in area.  You need to be very careful, though, because consider the following:

|dw:1349466175571:dw|

Note the shaded area; don't count it twice!