6 inches 6 1/14 inches Since area is defined as length multiplied by width, this is a simple matter of division. I suspect this problem is more a matter of handling fractions, so to make things easier, convert the fractions to improper fractions in order to do the math, then convert to proper fractions after you've gotten the result. Since the area of each rectangle is 12 3/4, multiply 12 by 4 and then add 3 to get 51/4 as the area. Doing the same for the values 2 1/8 and 2 1/10 gives sizes of 17/8 and 21/10 for the widths respectively. So 51/4 / 17/8 = 51/4 * 8/17 = 408/68 = 6/1 = 6 51/4 / 21/10 = 51/4 * 10/21 = 510/84 = 85/14 = 6 1/14
The answer is 9 packages. To get the answer you have to put each bar of soap and tubes of toothpaste into equal groups with none left over. It comes up to 9 packages.
