Question

A Plot of land was 20m by 18 m.After a uniform path was made all round the plot , the area of the plot became 224m.How wide was the path?

Answer 1

width of path --- x m
original area = 20(18) = 360

after path added,
width --- 18+2x
length ---- 20 + 2x

new area of whole thing = (18+2x)(20+2x)
that is supposed be 224 m, which makes no sense at all,
first of all it should be m^2, secondly how can the area get smaller
after adding the path ???

check your post

Answer 2

The path was cut from the original plot , hence reduced the size of the plot.

Answer 3

That is not what the original question said, but ...

ok, then we would have
new area
= (20-2x)(18-2x)
= 4x^2 - 76x + 360
= 225

4x^2 - 76x + 135 = 0
x = (76 ± √3616)/8 = appr 1.98 m or appr 17.02 m
reject the last answer, since it would yield negative widths and lengths.

the path is appr 2 m wide