Question

A piece of string is 144 inches long. Isabel wants to cut it into 2 pieces so that one piece is five times as long as the other. How long is each piece?

Answer 1

• 24 inches
• 120 inches

Explanation:

The lengths can be found by considering their ratio:

short : long = 1 : 5

The sum of the ratio units is 1+5 = 6, and the sum of the lengths is 144 inches. That means each "ratio unit" stands for (144 in)/6 = 24 inches of length.

The lengths are ...

1 : 5 = 24 in : 120 in

The pieces are 24 inches and 120 inches in length.

__

Equivalently, you can let s represent the shorter length. Then 5s is the longer one, and their total is ...

s +5s = 144

s = 144/6 = 24

5s = 5(24) = 120

The lengths are 24 inches and 120 inches.