Question

a carpenter has two pieces of lumber. He wants to make a rectangular raised flower bed with a ratio of the length to width to be 7:3. what will the width of the flower bed be if each piece of lumber is 20 feet in length?

Answer 1

This is a proportion problem. When we equal two ratios, we end up with a proportion. In this case, we have:

`(L)/(W)=(7)/(3)`

Where L is for length and W for width.

We also have that the length is 20, then, we have:

`(L)/(W)=(7)/(3)\rightarrow(W)/(L)=(3)/(7)\rightarrow W=(3\cdot L)/(7)\rightarrow W=(3\cdot20)/(7)`
`W=(60)/(7),W=8.57142\ldots`

Then, the width is W = 60/7 (or about W = 8.5714 feet).