How do you solve 20ft 8in - 11ft 11in?

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Answer 1 · 2017-08-01T13:27:18

See a solution process below:

We can either convert the inches into feet or the feet into inches.

Because I find it easier to work with integers or whole numbers I will convert the feet into inches.

We know: 1 ft = 12 in

Therefore we need to multiply the number of ft by the 12 to find the number of inches:

#20"ft" xx 12 = 240"in"# then:

#240"in" + 8"in" = 248"in"#

#11"ft" xx 12 = 132"in"# then:

#132"in" + 11"in" = 143"in"#

We can now rewrite the problem as:

#248"in" - 143"in" = 105"in"#

If we need to convert this back into feet and inches we can divide this by 12 giving:

#105 -: 12 = 8# with a remainder of #9# which is:

#8"ft " 9"in"#