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?

\(\boxed {square feeet}\)




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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
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Brent Hanneson – Creator of greenlighttestprep.com
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Hi,

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