A board 24 inches long is cut into two pieces in the ratio 3:5. Find the length of each piece.

The answer would be 9 and 15.

This is because when splitting you could name the two pieces 3x and 5x. You could then add those pieces together (creating 8x) to set it equal to 24 (8x=24). Then solving that equation x=3. You plug x back into the original equations you created so 3x3=9 and 5x3=15.