Gina cut a piece of ribbon into 3 equal pieces. Then she cut off 2 inches off one piece to make it 3 inches. How long was the original piece of ribbon?
2 + 3 = 5
5 * 3 = 15 inches
To find the original length of the ribbon, we need to work backwards from the information given.
Let's call the original length of the ribbon 'x' inches.
Gina cut the ribbon into 3 equal pieces, so each piece would be 'x/3' inches long.
Then, she cut off 2 inches from one of the pieces to make it 3 inches long.
Therefore, the piece that was cut would have been 'x/3 - 2' inches long.
Since this piece is now 3 inches long, we can set up the equation:
x/3 - 2 = 3
To solve for 'x', we can isolate it by adding 2 to both sides of the equation:
x/3 = 5
Now, multiply both sides of the equation by 3 to get rid of the fraction:
x = 5 * 3
x = 15
Therefore, the original length of the ribbon was 15 inches.