Thread: Algebra help!

An artist wants to cut a 17 foot pipe into three parts. If the longest part is to be 3 times as long as the shortest part, and the middle sized part to be 2 feet longer than the shortest part, how long should each part be?

Originally Posted by e11588

An artist wants to cut a 17 foot pipe into three parts. If the longest part is to be 3 times as long as the shortest part, and the middle sized part to be 2 feet longer than the shortest part, how long should each part be?

let x = length of the shortest piece ...

if x is length of shortest piece -

common sense would be x+2x+3x=17

Originally Posted by studenthelp10

if x is length of shortest piece -

common sense would be x+2x+3x=17

not quite ...

the middle sized part to be 2 feet longer than the shortest part

... that would not be 2x. how would you write "2 ft longer than x" ?

haha whoops

my bad it would be:

x+(x+2)+3x=17