A piece of string is 3 yards long. How many 1 1/4-yard long pieces can Julie cut from the string?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
Holy smoke! I just noticed another typo. The correct solution is:
3/(1 1/4) = 3/(5/4) = 3 * 4/5 = 12/5 = 2 2/5
But I'm sure you already figured it out ...
I see that my answer is not one of the choices.
Can you see my typo?
16/5 = 3 1/5, not 5 1/3
Never think you're done just because you arrived at answer. Always check it!
suppose I asked you how many pieces of 3 ft each you could cut from a 15-foot string. How would you do it? Divide the total length by the length of each piece, right? Same here. Don't be flummoxed by the fractions -- they're just numbers like any others.
3/(1 1/4) = 3/(5/4) = 4 * 4/5 = 16/5 = 5 1/3
That is, 5 1/3 pieces can be cut
Note that this does not mean that 1/3 of a yard is left over -- 1/3 of a piece is left over: That is, 1/3 * 5/4 = 5/12 yard left over.
nhijka
To find out how many 1 1/4-yard long pieces Julie can cut from the 3 yards long string, we need to divide the length of the string by the length of one piece.
Given that the string is 3 yards long and each 1 1/4-yard long piece should be cut from it, we can convert 1 1/4 to an improper fraction. This can be done by multiplying the whole number (1) by the denominator (4) and then adding the numerator (1).
1 1/4 = (1 * 4) + 1 = 5/4
Now, we divide the length of the string (3 yards) by the length of one piece (5/4 yards) to find out how many pieces Julie can cut.
3 yards ÷ 5/4 yards = 3 yards × 4/5 yards = 12/5 = 2 2/5
Therefore, Julie can cut 2 2/5 pieces from the string. Since we cannot have a fraction of a piece, we round down to the nearest whole number.
Therefore, the answer is B. 2