Jared has a wooden board that is 11 ft long. He wants to cut it into two pieces so that the longer piece is 4 ft less than 4 times the length of the shorter piece.

How long will each piece of board be?

Shorter piece: ft
Longer piece: ft

Question

Jared has a wooden board that is 11 ft long. He wants to cut it into two pieces so that the longer piece is 4 ft less than 4 times the length of the shorter piece.
 
How long will each piece of board be?
 
Shorter piece:    ft
Longer piece:     ft

anonymous · Answer

@iGreen

anonymous · Answer

@wmj259

wmj259 · Answer

Ooh a toughie

anonymous · Answer

uh oh lol a toughie? your mean a tough question? xD toughie tough guy both together mean toughie or looks like touhgie xD im so mean

anonymous · Answer

you not your mean xD didnt mean that to happen xD

anonymous · Answer

any idea?

wmj259 · Answer

I'm trying to make it into an equation.

anonymous · Answer

ok

anonymous · Answer

i think i have had this one before this first one is like 8 and the second one is like -32, -36, or -39 one of those three

wmj259 · Answer

You cannot have a negative length.

mathstudent55 · Answer

The short piece is x.
The long piece is "4 ft less than 4 times the length of the shorter piece."
Using x for the short piece, can you write an expression to show the length of the longer piece?

anonymous · Answer

o xD

mathstudent55 · Answer

4 ft less than 4 times x
4 times x is 4x
4 ft less than 4x is 4x - 4
Ok?

wmj259 · Answer

@mathstudent55
I thought we can have 11=2T
then
T=X+Y then
Y=4X-4
does that sound right?

anonymous · Answer

ok

wmj259 · Answer

@mathstudent55 congrats

mathstudent55 · Answer

11 = 2T will not work because that means each T is equal.
You can use some of what you wrote:
Let the pieces be x and y.
x + y = 11
y = 4x - 4

mathstudent55 · Answer

Now take y (which is 4x - 4) and substitute it into the y of x + y = 11.
You get:
x + (4x - 4) = 11
x + 4x - 4 = 11
5x - 4 = 11
5x = 15
x = 3
The short piece is 3.
The long piece has to be 8 since 3 + 8 = 11

wmj259 · Answer

Oh I assumed each piece would be the same. So 11=2T is not right.

mathstudent55 · Answer

Now let's make sure we are correct.
The longer piece is 4 ft less than 4 times the short piece.
4 * 3 ft = 12 ft
12 ft - 4 ft = 8 ft
It works out.
The lengths are: 3 ft and 8 ft

wmj259 · Answer

@mathstudent55 good job.

mathstudent55 · Answer

You are correct now. 11 = 2T is not correct.
The rest of the equations you wrote were good.
In fact, I used them to solve the problem.

mathstudent55 · Answer

Thanks, you too!

anonymous · Answer

yay i knew there was an 8 somewhere ^_^ im so cool xD im so lame accually

wmj259 · Answer

*facepalm* ;)