A piece of string is 40 centimeters long. It is cut into three pieces. The longest piece is 3 times as long as the middle-sized and the shortest piece is 23 centimeters shorter than the longest piece. Find the length of the shortest piece(in cm).
Let the length of largest piece be 3x.
Thus length of middle sized part will be x.
According to the given condition, length of shortest part is 3x–23.
Or, 3x+x+(3x–23)=40.
7x=63
Or, x=9
Or, the shortest piece =3(9)–23=4