Question

1. Mrs. Macdonald wants to put a uniform border of tulips around the outside of her vegetable garden. Her vegetable garden is 20m by 28m. This border will look best if the area of the tulips border equal to the area of the garden. How wide should the tulip border be (accurate to one decimal place)? Justify your answer algebraically.

Answer 1

If the border has width w, we need the total area to be twice the garden area:

(20+2w)(28+2w) = 2(20)(28)

Now just expand, collect terms, and solve for w.

Answer 2

96