Question

A 96 inch stick breaks into two pieces in the ratio of 3:5. How big is each piece?

Answer 1

40 cm.

let the length of the first part be 3x, second part be 4x, third part be 5x.

where x is a positive length in cm.

why 3x,4x and 5x ?

so that the ratio of lengths of the 3 parts be 3:4:5.

total length of the stick = 3x + 4x + 5x = 12x=96cm

so x=96/12 = 8cm

therefore the largest part of the stick (5x)= 5*8 =40cm