Question

the length of johns patio is 5 feet less than 3 times the length of howards patio .johns patio has a length of 40 feet . what is the length of howards patio

Answer 1

Hi there! The answer is 15 feet.

The easiest way of solving this problem is by setting up and solving an equation.

Let the length of Howard's patio be represented by X. Now we can get the following expressions

3 times the length of Howard's patio would be 3X (multiply by three).
5 feet less than 3 times the length of Howard's patio would be 3X - 5 (just subtract five).

Now we've found an expression that represents the length of John's patio. Knowing this we can set up and solve an equation.

$3x - 5 = 40$
First add 5 to both sides of the equation.

$3x = 40 + 5$
$3x = 45$
Finally divide both sides by 3.

$x = \frac{45}{3} = 15$
Therefore, the length of Howard's patio is 15 feet. The answer is 15 feet.

~ Hope this helps you!