solving problems with ratios

Megan_6 · #1 Oct 27, 2009, 10:03 PM

Ellie is making an abstract triangular collage for the wall. She has 14 feet of edging to go around the collage. if the longest side is twice the smallest and the other side is 4 less than three time the smallest, find the length of each side of the triangular collage.

Unknown008 · Oct 27, 2009, 10:50 PM

You have three edges.

Let 'x' be one unit of the total edging.

Longest side is twice the smallest side.
Let's say 'x' is the length of the longest side.
The shortest side will be x/2

The last side will be four less than three times the smallest.

Three times the smallest is (3x)/2. Four less of that is (3x)/2 -4.

Now, you know that the total is 14. So you get:

$x + \frac{x}{2} + ( \frac{3x}{2}-4) = 14$

Solve for x, the longest side. From that, you can find the other lengths.

I hope it helped!



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