Question

A piece of material measures 38 inches. Courtney cuts the piece of material into two pieces. One piece measures 19 inches. Write an addition equation that could be used to find the length, m, of the other piece of material.

Answer 1

As a whole, the piece first measured 38 inches. No matter how many times you cut it, all of the pieces will still add up to 38 inches. You know that 19 inches is the length of one of the two pieces, so all you need to find is the other unknown piece. Add the two together, with m being the unknown length.

19+m=38

If you want to solve the equation, just subtract 19 from both sides.

19+m=38

m=19