Question

A wire 23 cm long is cut into two pieces. The longer piece is 7 cm longer than the shorter piece.

Answer 1

Length of a wire = 23 cm

Given that :

▪︎The wire was cut into two pieces.

▪︎The longer piece of wire is 7 cm longer than the shorter piece of wire.

Let the shorter piece of wire be x.

Then, the longer piece of wire = x+7

An equation that can be derived from these statements :

▪︎x + x + 7 = 23

Let us solve this equation :

$= \tt x + x +7 = 23$

$= \tt 2x + 7 = 23$

$= \tt 2x = 16$

$= \tt x = \frac{16}{2}$

$\color{plum} \hookrightarrow \color{plum}x = 8$

Thus, the value of x = 8.

Which means :

Length of the shorter piece of wire = 8 cm

Length of the longer piece of wire = 8 + 7 = 15 cm

Since the length of the two wires add up to form 23 cm(8+15=23), we can conclude that we have found out the correct measures of each wire.

Therefore, the length of the shorter piece of wire = 8 cm