A rectangular garden measures 80 meters by 60 meters. A large path of uniform width is to be added along both shorter sides and one longer side of the garden. The landscape designer doing the work wants to double the area of the garden with the addition of the path. How wide should the path be?

Question

anonymous · Answer

The area of the garden is 4800 square meters. In the picture, x represents the width of the path.  |dw:1350161167214:dw| You can express the area of the path in terms of x. It is in fact $$A=2x^2+2*60*x+80*x=2x^2+200x=4800$$ as we know that it has to have the same area as the garden (for their collective area to be two times that of the garden). You know solve the equation for x.