Video Transcript
Three friends were seeing who could build the tallest tower out of blocks. David’s tower was 37 inches high. Isabella’s tower was six inches shorter than David’s. Ethan built a tower that measured three inches less than Isabella’s. How many inches tall was Ethan’s tower?
This problem gives us a lot of information. We need to walk through it one step at a time to find out how many inches tall Ethan’s tower was. The first thing we’re told is that David’s tower is 37 inches high. We can make a sketch of David’s Tower and mark it as 37 inches high.
The next piece of information we’re given is that Isabella’s tower is six inches shorter than David’s. To find the height of Isabella’s tower, we take the height of David’s tower and subtract six inches. David’s tower was 37 inches. 37 inches minus six inches equals 31 inches.
Next, we can sketch Isabella’s tower that was 31 inches tall. Our last statement tells us that Ethan’s tower is three inches less than Isabella’s. Ethan’s tower is the height of Isabella’s tower minus three inches.
We know that Isabella’s tower was 31 inches tall. That means Ethan’s tower is equal to 31 inches minus three inches. That makes Ethan’s tower 28 inches tall. Ethan’s tower was the shortest and stood 28 inches tall.
