Question

Sandy is working with a carpenter to frame a house. They are using 8-foot-long boards, but each board must be cut to be 94.6 inches long. How much is cut off each board?

Answer 1

1.4 inches is cut off each board

Explanation:

We have a mixture of units. It is much easier to make a comparison if all measurement use the same units. I choose inches

1 board is 8 ft. Each foot has 12 inches in it. So they are `8xx12` inches long. This is 96 inches.

The boards are cut to 94.6 inches long.

The amount wasted is `96.0-94.6`

Write as:

`96.0`
`ul(94.6)`

There is a zero above the 6 so lets make this easier to work out

Move the value of 1 from the 96 into the tenths so we have `96" is the same as "95+10/10 -> 95. cancel(0)^(10)`

`95. cancel(0)^(10)`
`ul(94. color(white)(..)6) larr" Subtract"`
`color(white)(9)1. color(white)(00) 4`

So the amount of waste is 1.4 inches

This is the same as `1 4/10 -> 1 2/5` inches