Problema Solution
a 45ft wire is to be cut into 3 pieces. one piece is to be 15ft long. of the other pieces one must be 2 feet less than 3 times the length of the other one. find the length of each piece.
Answer provided by our tutors
"one piece", "of the other pieces one must be... the length of the other one"
this question is very poorly worded
let 'x' represent the smallest piece, then 'x+15' represents another and '3x' represent the last piece
45 = x + x+15 + 3x
solving for 'x' we have x=6
6+15=21
3*6 = 18
the lengths we calculated based on our understanding of the problem are 6, 18 and 21 feet