Question

Mr. Wong cuts a coil of wire into two pieces in the ratio of 3:4. The length of the longer piece is 32 centimeters. What is the total length of the coil of wire?

Answer 1

Answer: 56 centimeters long.

Explanation:

You can find the other value in a ratio by dividing the value given by its corresponding value in the ratio, then multiplying the quotient by the other value in the ratio.

32 is the longer piece, and 4 is longer than 3.

32 / 4 = 8.

8 * 3 = 24

The shorter piece is 24 centimeters long.

The total length of the coil is 24 + 32, or 56 centimeters long.

Answer 2

56 cm

Explanation:

The ratio of the lengths of the pieces is 3:4.

The longer piece is 32 cm.

We set up a proportion to find the length of the smaller piece.

Let the length of the smaller piece be x.

3 is to 4 as x is to 32

3/4 = x/32

4x = 3 * 32

4x = 96

x = 24

The smaller piece is 24 cm.

24 cm + 32 cm = 56 cm