Question

a 25-inch piece of steel is cut into three pieces so that the second piece is twice as long as the first piece, and the third piece is one inch more than 5 times the length of the first piece. find the lengths of the pieces.

Answer 1

Let's first establish "x" for the first piece of steel. The second one is going to be "2x" and the 3rd piece will be 5x+1. Now we can set ou the equation as:
x+2x+5x+1=25 Combine like terms to get:
8x+1=25 Now subtract 1 from both sides to result in:

8x=24 Divide 8 into both sides to get:
x=3 inches for the first one. 
I'll let you figure the lengths of the other 2 pieces.