Question

A stack of 500 pieces of paper is 2.375 inches tall. Type complete answers to the questions below in the box.

1. Diego guesses that each piece of paper is 0.025 inches thick. Explain how you know that Diego’s answer is not correct.

2. Compute the thickness of each piece of paper. Show your reasoning.

Answer 1

1. Diego is incorrect because 2.375 divided by 0.025 does not equal 500.

2. 2.375 / 500 = 0.00475 inches.

Explanation:

1. We take the thickness of the stack and divide it by the thickness of each piece of paper to get how many pieces of paper are in the stack. In this case, Diego's guess indicates that there are only 95 pieces of paper in the stack.

2. The proper formula for this would question would be 2.375 / x = 500.

x represents the thickness of each piece of paper. We can solve for x by multiplying both sides by x to get 2.375 = 500x then we divide both sides by 500 to isolate x.

2.375 / 500 = x

0.00475 = x