SOLUTION: A board is 86 cm in the length and must be cut so that one piece is 20 cm longer than the other piece. Find the length of each piece.

Question 546542: A board is 86 cm in the length and must be cut so that one piece is 20 cm longer than the other piece. Find the length of each piece.
Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
One piece will be length x and the other piece will be 20 cm longer, so it will be x + 20 cm long.
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Added together the length of these two boards will equal 86 cm. So you can write an equation:
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x + (x + 20) = 86
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Remove the parentheses and add the two x's together to get:
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2x + 20 = 86
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Subtract 20 from both sides:
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2x = 66
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Divide both sides by 2 and you have:
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x = 33
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The short piece is 33 cm and the other piece is 20 cm longer or 33 + 20 = 53 cm.
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As a check you can add 33 + 53 to make sure that the lengths of these two pieces add up to be the total length of the original board, 86 cm. They do, so your answer is correct.
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