Mario is setting up a new tent during a camping trip. The tent came with 7 feet of rope. The instructions are to use 34.5 inches of the rope to tie a tarp on top of the tent. Then, the remaining rope should be cut into 8 1/4 inch sections to tie the tent to stakes in the ground. Mario will use all of the rope as instructed. Write and solve an equation to determine the number of 8 1/4 inch sections of rope Mario can cut from the rope. Show your work.

First, we need to convert the amount of rope used to tie the tarp from inches to feet.

34.5 inches ÷ 12 inches/foot = 2.875 feet

Now we can find the amount of rope left for the stakes.

7 feet - 2.875 feet = 4.125 feet

We need to convert this to inches to make it easier to work with the 8 1/4 inch sections.

4.125 feet × 12 inches/foot = 49.5 inches

Now we can divide the remaining rope by the length of each section:

49.5 inches ÷ 8.25 inches/section = 6 sections

Therefore, Mario can cut 6 sections of 8 1/4 inch rope from the remaining rope after tying the tarp.