Question

Ivan has a piece of lumber 104 inches long. He is sawing it into 12-inch lengths to make fence posts. He says he can get about 9 fence posts out of the board.

Is this reasonable?

Answer 1

He is reasonable to an extent, but he is not. He can saw 8 posts with the given materials.

Explanation:

To make 9 posts. He would need 108 inches of material. He can only make 8 posts with the materials he has. With the remainder of the material he could possibly make 6/10ths of a post.