Question

Jordan wants to adjust the shelves in his bookcase so there is twice as much space on the bottom shelf as on the top shelf, with one and a half times more space on the middle shelf as on the top shelf. if the total height of the bookcase is 0.9 meter, what is the height of the middle section?

Answer 1

Let the amount of space at the top be x.

The amount of space at the bottom will thus be 2x, and the amount of space in the middle will be 1.5x

Altogether the sum is 4.5

 

We have:

0.9 = x + 2x + 1.5x

4.5x = 0.9

x = 0.2

The middle shelf have 1.5x = 1.5(0.2) = 0.3m space

 

Or an alternative solution:

Divide 0.9 m by 4.5 to see how much meter the unit 1 is: 

0.9 / 4.5 = 0.2 m. 

The upper space is 0.2 m, the middle space = 0.3 m, the base space = 0.4 m.