Question

Ambrosia has a table that is 50 inches long. She wants to cut it into two pieces so that one piece will be 10 inches shorter than the other. How long should the shorter piece be?

Answer 1

Answer: 5

Explanation:

If you divide 50 by 10, you get 5. Right?

Answer 2

Step 1

Total length = 50 inches

Let the length of the first piece = x

The length of the second piece = x - 10

Step 2:

`\begin{gathered} \text{Total length = 50} \\ x\text{ + x - 10 = 50} \\ 2x\text{ = 50 + 10} \\ 2x\text{ = 60} \\ x\text{ = 30 inches} \end{gathered}`

Final answer

Length of the shorter piece = x - 10

= 30 - 10 = 20 inches