Another Crazy word Problem

A 12" board is cut into 3 pieces so that the 2nd piece is twice as long as the first piece and the third piece is 3 times as long as the first piece. If x represents the length of the first piece, find the length of all 3 pieces

What is your equation in x?

Sorry it's in x

Yes, what equation have you written down?

I haven't written an equation yet. I'm dyslexic so word problems are really hard for me

What are the lengths of the 3 pieces of wood, in terms of x?

12/3=4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by marukai47

12/3=4

---

That would be correct if all three pieces had equal length, but you have to take into account that second piece is 2 times longer then the first piece and third one is 3 times longer that the first one.

So confused.... Word problems suck

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by marukai47

So confused.... Word problems suck

---

MarkFL2 started helping you since he hasn't been online for almost an hour, I hope it'll be okay if I try to help you too.

Since you know that sum of the lengths of all pieces is 12", and length of the second piece is 2x, and length of the third piece is 3x, x being the length of the first piece, you can write an equation , which means first piece + second piece + third piece is equal to total length (12"). Now you can try to solve this equation for x and you will get the length of the first piece and after that it will be easy to find the lengths of other pieces. I hope this helps.

solve(system(x+2*x+3*x=6*x),{x}) = true

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by marukai47

solve(system(x+2*x+3*x=6*x),{x}) = true

---

Are you solving this with some software? if so, you should make it equal to 12, like: solve(system(x+2*x+3*x=12),{x}) or, solve(system(6*x=12),{x}).

solve(system(x+2*x+3*x=12),{x}) x=12

using Texas Instruments CAS software

How do I find the lengths?

Collect like terms on the left:



Now, what should you do next? And please don't use software, you really need to do this by hand to learn how to solve equations.(Nod)