Question

Terrell needs the total weight of his backpack, water jug, and sleeping bag to be less than 11 kilograms. His backpack wights 9580 grams, his water jug is 1.25 kilograms, and his sleeping bag is 25,000 milligrams. Dominic says that the total weight is 35.85 kg. He shows Terrell his math.
backpack: 9580 dividing 1000 = 9.58 kg

water jug: 1.25 kg

sleeping bag: 25000 dividing 1000 = 25 kg

Total 9.25
1.25
+25.00
-------------
35.80



a. What mistake did Dominic make?






b. Is the total weight of the backpack, water jug, and sleeping bag less than or greater than 11 kilograms? By how many grams?

Answer 1

A. He has divided by 1,000, instead of ten thousand.  He is calling the result kg.  What he should have done is divide by 10,000, getting 2.5kg for the sleeping bag.

b. 9.25
    1.25
     2.5
= 12.75 kg.

12.75 - 11 = 1.75kg or 1750 grams.