SOLUTION: Yuri has a board that is 98 in. long. He wishes to cut the board into two pieces so that one piece will be 10 in. longer than the other. What should the length of each piece be?

Algebra ->  Functions -> SOLUTION: Yuri has a board that is 98 in. long. He wishes to cut the board into two pieces so that one piece will be 10 in. longer than the other. What should the length of each piece be?      Log On


   



Question 62698: Yuri has a board that is 98 in. long. He wishes to cut the board into two
pieces so that one piece will be 10 in. longer than the other. What should the length
of each piece be?

Answer by joyofmath(189) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Yuri has a board that is 98 in. long. He wishes to cut the board into two
pieces so that one piece will be 10 in. longer than the other. What should the length of each piece be?

Let the short piece be S and the long piece L.
Then, S%2BL=98 since the length of the two pieces together will be 98 inches.
Also, L=10%2BS because the long piece will be 10 inches longer than the short one.
Then, S%2BL=98 becomes S%2B%2810%2BS%29=98.
So,2S%2B10=98.
Subtract 10 from both sides and 2S=88 so S=44.
So the short piece is 44 inches long and the longer piece is 10 inches longer, or 54 inches long.
We verify this by checking the that two pieces add up to 98 inches.
44+54 is indeed 98.