Question

a 20 ft piece of string is cut into two pieces so that the longer piece is 5 feet longer than twice the shorter piece. If the shorter piece is x feet long, find the lengths of both pieces

Answer 1

The shorter piece is 5 ft long.

The longer piece is 15 ft long.

Explanation:

Let's write this into an equation:

(5+2x)+x=20

5+3x=20

Subtract 5 from both sides

3x=15

x=5

The shorter piece is 5 ft long.

The longer piece is 5 feet longer than 2 times 5 ft (the shorter piece).

5+2*5

5+10

15

The longer piece is 15 feet long.

Hope this helped!