SOLUTION: The first side of a triangle is y yards long. The second side is 3 yards shorter than the first side. The third side is three times as long as the second side. What is the perim

Question 553719: The first side of a triangle is y yards long. The second side is 3 yards shorter than the first side. The third side is three times as long as the second side. What is the perimeter of the triangle in feet?
This is how I evaluated it, but not sure if this equation is correct:
y + (y-3) + 3(y -3) / 3
Found 2 solutions by stanbon, bucky:
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The first side of a triangle is y yards long. The second side is 3 yards shorter than the first side. The third side is three times as long as the second side. What is the perimeter of the triangle in feet?
Perimeter = y + (y-3) + 3(y -3)
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= y + y-3 + 3y-9
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= 5y-12
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I'm not sure why you included the division by 3. It is not needed.
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You were correct with:
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y + (y-3) + 3(y -3)
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To write the equation you can let P represent the perimeter. Then the equation is:
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P = y + (y-3) + 3(y -3)
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To simplify the right side you can do the distributed multiplication of the last term by multiplying +3 times each of the terms in the parentheses to get:
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P = y + (y-3) + 3y - 9
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Because the remaining set of parentheses (for the second side) is preceded by a + sign, you can just remove the parentheses and you then have:
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P = y + y - 3 + 3y - 9
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Now add up the three terms that contain y ... y + y + 3y = 5y
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and you have P = 5y - 3 - 9
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Finally combine the two constants -3 - 9 = -12
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and you have the final equation:
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P = 5y - 12
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and don't forget that the units for P is yards.
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Hope this helps you to understand the problem better. You had done the hard part correctly except that there was no need to divide the last term by 3. The third side was just three times the second side, and since the second side was y - 3, you only needed to multiply 3(y - 3) to get the third side.
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Keep up the good work ... you're getting it!!!
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