Question

As part of their study of the Native American basket weaving, Lia's class is making wicker baskets. Lia starts with a strip of wicker that is 36 inches long. From the strip, she first cuts one piece but does not know it's length, and then she cuts a piece that is 6 1/2 inches long. The piece left is 7 3/4 inches long. What is the length of the first piece she cut from the strip?

Answer 1

If you would like to know the length of the first piece Lia cut from the strip, you can calculate this using the following steps:

36 inches - x - 6 1/2 inches = 7 3/4 inches
36 - x - 13/2 = 31/4
36 - 13/2 - 31/4 = x
x = 144/4 - 26/4 - 31/4
x = 87/4
x = 21 3/4 inches long

The correct result would be 21 3/4 inches long.