Question

Jared has a wooden board that is 11 ft long. He wants to cut it into 2 pieces so that the longer piece is 4 ft less than 4 times the length of the shorter piece. How long is each piece?

Answer 1

x+y=11

x is longer than y
x>y
x is 4 less than 4 times y
x=-4+4y

sub back
x+y=11
-4+4y+y=11
-4+5y=11
add 4 to both sides
5y=15
divide both sides by 5
y=3

sub back
x=-4+4y
x=-4+4(3)
x=-4+12
x=8

the pieces are 8ft and 3ft