Tami is cutting an 8 1/2 inch wide piece of paper in strips for an art project. How many 1/2 inch strips can she cut?

first, convert 8 1/2 to improper fraction:

8 1/2 = 17/2
therefore,
(17/2)/(1/2) = (17/2)*(2/1) = 17 strips

so there,, :)