116 frame/painting area

[ern5231]

A rectangular oil painting has length 24 and width 16. The frame has uniform width around the painting. Find the frame width
(1) oil painting and the frame area is 884 (2) frame area is 500

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

A rectangular oil painting has length 24 and width 16. The frame has uniform width around the painting. Find the frame width
(1) oil painting and the frame area is 884 (2) frame area is 500

First notice that both statements are providing the same information (that the total area of painting and frame is 884).
Since both statements are equivalent, we know the answer must be either D or E.

To solve this, we'll let the frame width = x

So, we can conclude that x must equal 5, in which case the answer is D