Question

a bookshelf is 17 inches wide. there is enough room for 2 trophies. one trophy is 5 inches wider than the other. how wide is each trophy

Answer 1

We need to compute for the length of each trophy given that one trophy is 5 inches wider than the other.
Let x be the length of the first trophy.
Let x+5 be the length of the second trophy
The solution is shown below:
x + (x + 5) = 17
x + x + 5 =17
2x =17 -5
2x = 12
x = 12/2
x=6 (for the first trophy)
x + 5 = 6+5 = 11 (for the second trophy)

The first trophy is 6 inches wide while the second trophy is 11 inches wide.