Help with my homework, please.

Question

I cut a long piece of wood into 50 cm pieces. I am able to cut w, pieces of wood, and have 20 cm left over. How long was the piece of wood to start with? Make an expression.

Answer 1

First identify the quantities involved

Let x be the length of the wood

let w be the number of pieces

 

Next Translate the words into equations that relate them together:

 

Translate “i am am able to cut w pieces and have 20 cm left over“ into

x= w*50 +20

The 50 comes from the statement that I cut into 50cm pieces.

 

the Problem asks for an expression. Until we know the value of w, we can’t actually give a numerical value for x, but this equation gives the correct expression.