by 25 feet and the area of the rug is 160 square feet, how wide will the border be?
(25-2B)(13-2B)=160 325-76B+4B^2=160 4B^2-76B+165 = 0 (2B-5)(2B-33) = 0 B = 2.5 ft
You could do this how the first poster did it, or this way: Define you variables: x is the width of the rug y is the length of the rug xy=160 x+12=y Substitute equation #2 into equation #1 x(x+12)=160 x?+12x-160=0 (x+20)(x-8)=0 x=8 (a negative answer wouldn't work because this is a word problem) xy=160 8y=160 y=20 25-20=5 13-8=5 Both leave 5ft, and since there are two 'widths' in the border, I divide by 2 2.5ft
