Final answer:
To find the length of the shorter piece of a 28cm wire cut into two pieces with the longer piece being 6cm longer, we set up an equation and solve for x, finding that the shorter piece is 11 centimeters long.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question involves finding the length of the shorter piece of wire when a 28cm wire is cut into two pieces, where the longer piece is 6 cm longer than the shorter piece. To solve this, we let the length of the shorter piece be x centimeters. Then the longer piece would be x + 6 centimeters. Since the total length of the wire is 28 centimeters, we set up the equation x + (x + 6) = 28. This simplifies to 2x + 6 = 28. Solving for x, we subtract 6 from both sides to get 2x = 22, and then divide by 2 to find x = 11. Therefore, the length of the shorter piece of wire is 11 centimeters.