Question

A carpenter cut a 12 ft board into two pieces. One piece is three feet less than twice theshorter piece. How long is each piece?Use X In the equation

Answer 1

Let the shorter piece be called "x"

The longer piece is "3" less than TWICE shorter, so we can write the equation:

Longer is:

$2x-3$

Since the board is 12 feet, we can say:

Longer + Shorter = 12

we know longer = 2x - 3 and shorter is x, so we can write:

(2x - 3) + (x) = 12

We simply solve this equation for "x":

$\begin{gathered} 2x-3+x=12 \\ 3x-3=12 \\ 3x=12+3 \\ 3x=15 \\ x=\frac{15}{3} \\ x=5 \end{gathered}$

So, shorter piece (x) is 5 feet

Longer piece, thus, is 12 - 5 = 7 feet