Question

A piece of string is 24cm Long and is cut in to three pieces in such a way that the second piece is twice as Long as the first and the third is 1 cm shorter than the first Denoting the first piece by x cm Find in term :a)the second piece and b) the Thursday piece

Answer 1

a) 12 1/2 cm

b) 5 1/4 cm

Explanation:

The piece of string is 24 cm long.

It is cut in three pieces.

Let the length of the first piece be x.

The second piece is twice as long as the first. This means that the length of the second piece is 2x.

The third is 1 cm shorter than the first. This means that the length of the third piece is x - 1

Therefore:

x + 2x + x - 1 = 24

4x - 1 = 24

4x = 25

x = 25 / 4 = 6 1/4cm

Therefore, the length of the second piece will be:

2 * 25/4 = 25/2 = 12 1/2 cm

The length of the third piece will be:

6 1/4 - 1 = 5 1/4 cm