Question

You cut a 54-inch rope into four pieces. Twoof the pieces are the same length, a thirdpiece is twice as long as each of the twoequal pieces, and the fourth piece is half aslong as each of the two equal pieces. Find thelength of each piece.

Answer 1

Let's use the variable x to represent the length of the first and second pieces.

If the third piece has twice the length of the first and second, its length is 2x.

If the fourth piece has half the length of the first and second, its length is 0.5*x.

Adding all four pieces and equating to 54 inches, we have:

$\begin{gathered} x+x+2x+0.5x=54 \\ 4.5x=54 \\ x=\frac{54}{4.5} \\ x=12 \end{gathered}$

So the length of each piece is:

12 inches, 12 inches, 24 inches and 6 inches.