A 42 inch board that's cut into two pieces. one piece is two times the length than other. Find the length of the two pieces. short and long
A 42-inch boardboard is cut into two pieces. One piece is two times the length of the other. Find the lengths of the two pieces.
To find the lengths of the two pieces, we need to set up and solve a system of equations.
Let's denote the shorter piece as x inches. According to the problem, the longer piece is two times the length of the shorter piece, so we can represent it as 2x inches.
Since both pieces come from the same 42-inch board, their total lengths should add up to 42 inches. We can express this as an equation:
x + 2x = 42
Combining like terms, we have:
3x = 42
To isolate x, we divide both sides of the equation by 3:
x = 42 / 3
x = 14
Therefore, the shorter piece is 14 inches long. To find the length of the longer piece, we substitute the value of x into the expression for the longer piece:
2x = 2 * 14
2x = 28
Therefore, the longer piece is 28 inches long.