Question

a 55 ft long drainage pipe must be cut into two pieces before installation. one piece is two-thirds as long as the other. find the length of each piece

Answer 1

33 feet

22 feet

Explanation:

Let the longer piece be x

Therefore the shorter piece is (2/3)x

x + (2/3)x = 55 Combine the left 2 terms.

(3/3)x + (2/3)x = 55 Add

(5/3)x = 55 Multiply both sides by (3/5)

(3/5) * (5/3)x = (3/5)*55

x = 33

The larger piece is 33 feet

The smaller piece is (2/3) * 33 = 22 feet