Question

A rectangle flower garden has a length that is 7 feet less than twice it's width. A 5-ft brick border is added around the garden, and the area of the garden and the brick border is a total of 195 square ft. Find the dimensions of the garden without the brick border. L=? W=?

Answer 1

Ok so if we call the width x then the length is 2x-7
Now by adding a 5 foot brick border around the edge the new dimensions are:
x+10 and 2x+3
Now we can form an equation to solve:
(x+10)(2x+3)=195
2x²+23x+30=195
2x²+23x-165=0
Now we can solve this for x
(2x+33)(x-5)=0
So x=-33/2 or x=5
As x cannot be less than 0 x must be equal to 5
So the dimensions of the garden are 5 feet by 3 feet