Question

A 10-foot board is to be cut into 3 pieces. Two of the pieces will be the same length and one piece will be 2 feet longer than the other two.

Which equation could be used to solve for the lengths?

x + x + x - 2 = 10
x + x + 2 x = 10
x + x + x = 10 + 2
x + x + x + 2 = 10

Answer 1

Let x be the length of each of the two equal pieces. The third piece is x + 2, and their sum is 10:

x + x + (x + 2) = 10, i.e. x + x + x + 2 = 10.

(You can solve: 3x + 2 = 10 → x = 8/3 ft, so pieces are 8/3, 8/3, and 14/3 ft.)