Question

Stephon has a square brick patio. He wants to reduce the width by 4 feet and increase the length by 4 feet.

Answer 1

We have that Stephon wants to reduce the width by 4, and we can represent this as follows:

$w=x-4$

And he wants to increase the length by 4:

$l=x+4$

The square brick patio has an area of:

$A_{\text{squarepatio}}=20ft\cdot20ft=x\cdot x=400ft^2\Rightarrow x=20$

Therefore, the area of the new patio is given by:

$A=w\cdot l=(x-4)\cdot(x+4)$

Since x = 20, we have:

$A=l\cdot w=(20-4)ft\cdot(20+4)ft\Rightarrow A=16ft\cdot24ft\Rightarrow A=384ft^2$

Therefore, the answer is A = 384 square feet (option C).