Question

Thomas found a board in his dad’s garage. He cut off 15 in. Then he cut the remaining board into 3 equal pieces. Each piece is now 25 in long. How long was the board before he cut it?

What strategy would be best to solve this problem?

Answer 1

By summing up the lengths of the three equal pieces and adding the length of the piece that was initially cut off, we find that the original length of the board was 90 inches.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, we need to work backwards from the information given about the cuts made on the board. After Thomas cut the board into 3 equal pieces, each was 25 inches long. Therefore, the total length of the board after the first cut (before it was divided into three pieces) can be found by adding the lengths of the three pieces together:

25 in + 25 in + 25 in = 75 in

This gives us the length of the remaining board after Thomas made the first cut to remove 15 inches. Now, to find the original length of the board, we add the length of the piece removed:

75 in + 15 in = 90 in

This calculation tells us that the original length of the board was 90 inches.

Answer 2

Multiply 25 by 3 (25 • 3) which equals 75, and then you add 15 (75+15) which equals 90. Hope this helped :)