Question

You are putting a uniform border of lace around a rectangulai tablecloth that is 60 in. by 40 in. If you have a total of 2400 square inches of lace to use, what is the width of the border you should apply to trim the table cloth

Answer 1

The width of the border around the tablecloth can be determined by subtracting the area of the tablecloth from the total area of lace to find the area of the border, then using the resulting area to solve for the border width.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the width of the border of lace to be applied around the rectangular tablecloth, we need to understand that the border will form a larger rectangle around the tablecloth, and the area of lace used will be the difference between the area of the larger rectangle and the area of the tablecloth.

The area of the tablecloth is 60 inches by 40 inches, so that's 2400 square inches. If we let the width of the border be w inches, the dimensions of the larger rectangle would be (60 + 2w) inches by (40 + 2w) inches, where 2w accounts for the border width on both sides.

Now, we can set up an equation using the total area of lace given:

(60 + 2w) * (40 + 2w) - 2400 = 2400

If you simplify this equation, you can solve for w, the width of the border.