Question

Anna wants to put a wire fence around each of her dinosaur fossils. She has 16 1/2 ft of fencing. How many dinosaur fossils will ana be able to put a fence around if each fossil requires exactly 2 2/3 ft of fencing? Note: you cannot have part of a fence

Answer 1

6

Explanation:

You have 16 1/2 ft of fence, and each piece of fence is 2 2/3 ft. This is a division problem. You need to divide 16 1/2 ft by 2 2/3 ft.

`16 (1)/(2) / 2 (2)/(3) =`

First, we change each mixed numeral into a fraction.

`= (16 * 2 + 1)/(2) / (2 * 3 + 2)/(3)`

`= (33)/(2) / (8)/(3)`

To divide fractions, you multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction.

`= (33)/(2) * (3)/(8)`

`= (33 * 3)/(2 * 8)`

`= (99)/(16)`

`= 6 (3)/(16)`

The fencing material is enough for 6 and 3/16 fences, but since you cannot have a fraction of a fence, you can make 6 fences.

Answer 2

The answer would be 5 fossils

Explanation:

Technically, 16.5 x 2 2/3 = 5.5, but like the statement says: you cannot have part of a fence. So, the answer would be the closest whole, which is 5 fossils. I hope this helped!