Question

a 57-foot wire is cut into three pieces. the second pieces is 7 feet longer than the first piece and the third piece is twice as long as the second piece. how long is each piece?

Answer 1

Let's form some expressions! Let the length of the first piece be x. We know the length of the second piece is (x + 7). Since the third piece is twice as long as the second, it's length is 2(x + 7).

We are told the total length of these three pieces is 57. By the way I have been omitting the unit of feet because it is a pain to keep writing. In fact it is superfluous anyway at this point.

x + (x + 7) + 2(x + 7) = 57

4x + 21 = 57
4x = 36
x = 9

Therefore the first piece has length 9ft, the second has length 16ft, and the third 32ft. I hope this helps you :)

Answer 2

so first off, you already know the second peice is 7 feet longer so u start with 7. and u know the 3rd piece is twice as long as the second piece so we start with fourteen. then you evenly distripute 1 foot to each group until you run out of wire