an electron cuts a 12 ft piece of into two pieces. one piece is 7 ft longer than the other how long are the pieces?
what is 7+5?
let the short piece be x
longer piece is x+7
x + x+7 = 12
2x = 5
x = 2.5
short piece is 2.5
longer piece is 9.5
To find the lengths of the two pieces, let's assign variables to represent their lengths. Let x represent the length of the shorter piece. Since the other piece is 7 ft longer, we can represent its length as x + 7.
According to the problem, the total length of the rope is 12 ft. Therefore, the equation can be set up as follows:
x + (x + 7) = 12
Now, let's solve the equation to find the value of x, which represents the length of the shorter piece:
2x + 7 = 12
2x = 12 - 7
2x = 5
x = 5 / 2
x = 2.5
Since x represents the length of the shorter piece, it is equal to 2.5 ft. The longer piece can be found by adding 7 ft to it:
x + 7 = 2.5 + 7 = 9.5
Therefore, the shorter piece measures 2.5 ft and the longer piece measures 9.5 ft.