It takes Bob five minutes to saw a board into three pieces. How long would it take him to saw a board into nine pieces? HINT: The answer is NOT fifteen minutes.
it takes 5 minutes to make 2 cuts to give you 3 pieces. so if you continue at a rate of two cuts per 5 minute and in order to get 9 pieces you need 8 cuts. so I think 20 minutes
To determine how long it would take Bob to saw a board into nine pieces, we need to analyze the pattern based on the given information.
From the statement, we know that it takes Bob five minutes to saw a board into three pieces. This means that for every cut, he makes three pieces.
Now, let's consider the number of cuts it would take to turn the board into nine pieces. If we think about it, each cut we make will result in two additional pieces (since each cut divides an existing piece into two). So, if Bob needs to have nine pieces in total, he will need to make eight cuts (since he already starts with one piece).
Now, we know that for each cut, Bob takes five minutes. Therefore, to determine the total time it would take Bob to make eight cuts and end up with nine pieces, we can calculate:
Total time = Number of cuts * Time taken per cut
Total time = 8 cuts * 5 minutes per cut
Total time = 40 minutes
So, it would take Bob approximately 40 minutes to saw a board into nine pieces. The hint provided in the question indicates that this is not a straightforward multiplication of the initial time (five minutes) by the resulting number of pieces (nine), but rather involves considering the process and the additional cuts required.