The carsons are putting a rectangular swimming pool in their backyard. The pool will measure 20ft by 12 ft. They plan to have a cement walkway around the pool, which should measure 4 feet wide. What is the area of the walkway?
First, we need to calculate the total area of the entire pool, including the walkway.
Total length of pool = 20 ft
Total width of pool = 12 ft
Area of pool = 20 ft * 12 ft = 240 sq ft
Now we need to calculate the dimensions of the pool including the walkway. Since the walkway will be 4 feet wide on all sides of the pool, the new dimensions of the pool will be:
New length of pool = 20 ft + 4 ft + 4 ft = 28 ft
New width of pool = 12 ft + 4 ft + 4 ft = 20 ft
Area of pool with walkway = 28 ft * 20 ft = 560 sq ft
Now we need to calculate the area of the walkway alone:
Area of walkway = Area of pool with walkway - Area of pool
Area of walkway = 560 sq ft - 240 sq ft = 320 sq ft
Therefore, the area of the walkway will be 320 square feet.