A contractor wants to use 34 feet of molding, cut into three pieces, to trim the sides and top of a garage door. The long piece is 1.5 feet longer than three times the length of each shorter piece. Find the length of each piece.
Sounds like the short pieces are both the same length. Let them each be x feet long.
Three times the short piece is 3x feet
The long piece is 1.5 feet longer than 3 times the short piece. That must be 3x+1.5 feet
Add them all together and you get
x+x+3x+1.5 = 34
then you solve the equation to get the value of x.
+118654 
