Suppose that 12 inches of wire costs 36 cents.
At the same rate, how much (in cents) will 6 inches of wire cost?
To find out how much 6 inches of wire will cost, we can set up a proportion using the cost and the length of the wire. Let's call the cost of 6 inches of wire x cents.
Using the given information, we have the proportion:
12 inches of wire is to 36 cents as 6 inches of wire is to x cents.
This can be written as:
12/36 = 6/x
We can simplify this by dividing both sides of the equation by 12:
1/3 = 6/x
Now, we can cross multiply:
x = 6 * 3
x = 18
Therefore, 6 inches of wire will cost 18 cents.