Question

Todd has a new spool of wire. He needs 48 pieces of wire, each 22 feet long. He estimates that he needs 50×20=1000 feet, and he concludes that 1 spool with 1000 feet will be enough. Should Todd use multiplication to estimate the total amount of wire he needs? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

See explanation

Explanation:

Todd has a new spool of wire. He needs 48 pieces of wire, each 22 feet long. He estimates that he needs 50×20=1000 feet, and he concludes that 1 spool with 1000 feet will be enough.

Actually, Todd is incorrect because in his estimation he took 2 more pieces than he needed of the length 2 feet shorter that he needed. The total length may appear smaller. Check this:

`48* 22=1,056\ feet`

So, Todd shouldn't use multiplication 50×20=1000 to estimate the total amount of wire he needs.