Patrick bought his recliner on sale for 3x + 1 dollar. to replace his recliner now, ir would cost 5x - 3 dollars. write an expression that represents the difference in the price of the replacement recliner and the original recliner.

So we are finding the difference btween 5x-3 and 3x+1.
(5x-3)-(3x+1)

Let's subtract the x's first.
5x-3x=2x
Now the numbers.
-3-1=-4
Now, we need to put 2x and -4 together. 

The expression would be 2x-4.

Best answer that i found on yahoo ok   set :   x= length of 2nd piece in cm  x- 3= length of 1st piece in cm  x-4= length of 3rd piece in cm  then since you know they all came from the 20 cm ribbon you add them together and set them equal to 20x+ x-3 +x-4 = 20  3x - 7= 20  3x= 27  x= 9  the shortest piece is the third piece which is x- 4  x-4  9-4 = 5  the length of the smallest piece is 5 cm.  the other lengths are  9 cm  6 cm