Algebra word prob: The length of Jim's leader is always 2 ft

ChadH

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Hi everyone, this is my first posting on this site! (I hope this makes sense! :lol: )

How would you set up this equation?

The length of Jim's leader is always 2 ft shorter than the length of his fishing rod. If the product of the length of the leader and the length of the rod equals strength of his line in lbs and he used 16 lbs line, what is the length of his leader?
 
You set it up by first naming things so that you can talk about them conveniently.

L = Length of Ladder
R = Length of Fishing Rod

Now translate the words.

"The length of Jims leader is always 2 ft shorter than the length of his fishing rod. "

L = R - 2 ft

"If the product of the length of the leader and the length of the rod equals strength of his line in lbs, and he used 16 lbs line"

First off, this is just wrong (ft*ft = lbs?), but let's go with it.

L*R = 16 lb

Then answer the question:

"What is the length of his leader?"

Again, we have serious unit problems. Let's go back a little and just ignore the units or we'll never make sense of it. We'll just have to remember that R and L are in feet.

L = R - 2
L*R = 16

What's next?
 
Your breakdown and explanation of the problem was wonderful! But, I have no idea what is next! I am trying to ignore the different units being used here, but my brain isn't able to compute this!
 
Re: Algebra word prob: The length of Jim's leader is always

ChadH said:
If the product of the length of the leader and the length of the rod equals strength of his line in lbs and he used 16 lbs line, what is the length of his leader?
Just pretend that says:
If the product of the length of the leader and the length of the rod equals 16,
what is the length of his leader? (and tell your teacher to smarten up) :shock:
 
Logically I would say the answer should be 6ft. But for some reason I doubt I am right?!
 
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