Question

Fifteen strips, 11/4" wide, are to be ripped from a sheet of plywood. If 1/8" is lost with each cut, how much of the plywood sheet is used in making the 15 strips? (Assume 15 cuts are necessary.)

Answer 1

The size of the plywood sheet used is;

`(37)/(8)^(\doubleprime)`

Here, we want to get the size of the part of the plywood sheet lost

From the question, we are told that 1/8 inches is lost

The size lost would be;

`(1)/(8)*\text{ 15 = }(15)/(8)`

This is the size that was lost

To get the total part of the plywood used, we simply add the width of all the strips to the amount of the plywood lost

We have this as;

`(11)/(4)\text{ + }(15)/(8)\text{ = }(22+15)/(8)\text{ = }(37)/(8)`