a piece of wire is 25 ft long and cut into pieces of different lengths all pieces that either 3 4 or 5 ft long if you cut two pieces of 5 how many pieces of 3 and 4 ft can you get not leftover wires after cutting
Algebraically you could represent it like this 2*5 + x*3 + y*4 = 25 Multiply 2*5 10 + 3x + 4y = 25 Subtract 10 from both sides. 3x + 4y = 15 Now try this. Let y = 2 3x + 4*2 = 15 3x + 8 = 15 Subtract 8 from both sides. 3x = 15 - 8 3x = 7 Ordinarily you would divide by 3 but the question doesn't let you.
7 is a neat number. You could use 4 + 3
So one answer is 2 fives. 3 Fours 1 Three
You could also do 2 fives 5 threes. Nothing says you must have a four.
You can also do. 3 fives 1 four 2 threes There is nothing to say you can't have another 5
