Question

A jewelry maker needs 5 inch pieces of wire from sections that are each 4 feet in length. What is the greatest number of 5 inch pieces of wire the jewelry maker can cut from 6 sections?

Answer 1

For this case we have that by definition:

1 foot equals 12 inches

Then, the sections measure:

1ft ------------> 12in

4ft ------------> x

Where "x" represents the inches of each section.

$x = \frac {4 * 12} {1}\\x = 48$

Thus, each section measures 48 inches.

If the pieces of wire to be removed must be 5 inches each, then from a section they are removed:

$\frac {48} {5} = 9.6$

Now, from each section you can remove 6 pieces of wire.

Then, from 6 sections, it takes $6 * 6 = 36$ pieces of wire.

Answer:

36