Abey Numkena is an interior designer. She has been asked to locate an oriental rug for the new corporate office. As a rule, the rug should cover 1/2 of the total floor area with a uniform width surrounding the rug.

Question

a) If the dimensions of the room are 12 ft by 16 ft, write an equation to model the situation.

b) What are the dimensions of the rug?

Answer 1

If the width surrounding the rug is w, then

(12-2w)(16-2w) = 12*16/2

Now just solve for w and determine the rug dimensions.