Question

A wire 28 cm long is cut into two pieces. The longer piece is 2 cm longer than the shorter piece.

Find the length of the shorter piece of wire

Answer 1

13 cm

Explanation:

The total length of a wire is 28 cm.

The shorter piece can be given an unknown variable x. This is how we will refer to the shorter piece in our equation.

The longer piece is 2 more cm than the shorter piece. So we can write it as x+2

Since both the shorter and longer piece add up to the total length, we can write: x + (x+2) = 28

Now, we solve.

2x + 2 = 28

2x = 26

x = 13

The length of the shorter piece is 13 cm.

Hope this helps :)