CPM Homework Help : A2C Problem 8-97

Phana's garden is $2$ meters wide and $5$ meters long. She puts a walkway of uniform width around her garden. If the area of the walkway is $30$ square meters, what are the outer dimensions of the walkway? Drawing a diagram will help you solve this problem.

Hint:

Draw a diagram.

Possible diagram:

Step 1:

Find the total area of the outside rectangle by adding
the area of the inside rectangle to the area of the walkway.

30 + 10 = 40 sq m

Step 2:

If x meters of walkway was added to each side, write an
expression for each side of the outside rectangle.

$\text{width} = 2 + 2x$

Step 3:

Now write an equation of the form (length)(width) = area and solve for x.
Make sure you remember to answer the original question.