The figure above represents a rectangular garden with a walkway around it. The garden is 18 feet long and 12 feet wide. The walkway is uniformly 3 feet wide, and its edges meet at right angles. What is the area of the walkway?

\(\boxed {square feeet}\)




_________________

Need Practice? 20 Free GRE Quant Tests available for free with 20 Kudos
GRE Prep Club Members of the Month: Each member of the month will get three months free access of GRE Prep Club tests.

Let's first add some lines to divide the walkway into 4 rectangular regions (A, B, C and D), and then find the area of each region.


We'll start with region A.
Since the walkway is uniformly 3 feet wide, we can add this to our diagram.
We'll also add the fact that the garden is 18 feet long.



At this point, we can see that the total length of region A = 18 + 3 + 3 = 24 feet

So, the area of region A = (3)(24) = 72
Since region B is identical to region A, we know that the area of region B = 72 also


Now let's examine region C.

We can see that the dimensions of region C are 3 by 12
So, the area of region C = (3)(12) = 36
Since region D is identical to region C, we know that the area of region D = 36 also

TOTAL AREA of walkway = 72 + 72 + 36 + 36 = 216

Answer: 216

Cheers,
Brent
_________________

Brent Hanneson – Creator of greenlighttestprep.com
If you enjoy my solutions, you'll like my GRE prep course.

Sign up for GRE Question of the Day emails

Hi,

Just one question, why we are adding length and width of garden when we have to find the area of only walkway?
_________________

Ever Tried? Ever Failed? No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better!!