Question

Help You are on an alien planet where the names for substances and the units of measures are very unfamiliar. Nonetheless, you obtain 9 quibs of substance called skvarnick. You can trade this skvarnick for gold coins, but the vendors all measure skvarnick in units of sleps; not quibs. 12 sleps is equal to 9 quibs. If you have 9 quibs of skvarnick, how many sleps do you have? Round your answer to the nearest tenth (one decimal place). Type only the number; not the number and unit.

Answer 1

Answer: 12

Explanation.

This problem deals with the conversion of units. You need to convert the 9 quibs of skvarnick to sleps, to determine how many sleps you have.

The conversion of units is easily undertaken once you build your converesion factors.

Conversion factors are ratios (fractions) equivalent to one, which permits use the identity property of the multiplication to change one unit to a different equivalent one.

Remember that the identity property of multiplication states that any amount multiplied by 1 remains unchanged, i.e.

`a.1=a`.

Then, build your conversion factor from the definitions given:

• 12 sleps is equal to 9 quibs.

• 12 sleps = 9 quibs

• in virtue of the division property of equality, you can divide both sides by 12 sleps and get:

1 = 12 sleps/ 9 quibs ← conversion factor

Now you can multiply the amount 9 quibs by the conversion factor, which is equal to 1, to find the equivalent amount of sleps:

• identity property: 9 quibs = 9 quibs × 1

• substitution property: 9 quibs = 9 quibs × 12 sleps/ 9 quibs

You can see that the unit quibs appear in the numerator and the denominator so it cancels out, and the result will be in sleps.

So, all you have to do now is the operations with the numbers:

9 quibs = (9 × 12 / 9) sleps = 12 sleps ← answer