Question

A seamstress needs to cut 15-inch pieces of ribbon from a roll of ribbon that is 9 feet in length. What is the greatest number of 15-inch pieces the seamstress can cut from 5 of these rolls of ribbon?

Answer 1

Before attempting to solve any problem, make sure that the units are consistent. There are units of feet and inches. To be consistent,let's convert ft to in knowing that there are 12 inches in 1 ft.

9 ft*12 in/1 ft = 108 inches

Now, it also mentions that there are 5 of these. So, the total length would be:
Total Length = 108*5 = 540 inches

Finally, divide the total length to 15 inches.

Number of portions = 540/15 = 36 pieces of 15-inch ribbons