Question

a 56 inch board is to be cut into three pieces so that the second piece is three times as long as the first piece and a third piece is four times as long as the first piece if x represents the length of the first please find the length of all three pieces

Answer 1

x + 3x + 4x = 56
8x = 56
x = 7

The shortest piece is 7 inches
The middle piece is 7*3 = 21 inches.
The longest piece is 4*7 = 28 inches

Check
7 + 21 + 28 = 56 It does check and the lengths are correct.