Final answer:
The total person-hours spent by a crew of 4 people each working for 4 hours is 16 person-hours. This is calculated by multiplying the number of people by the hours each person worked, resulting in 4 x 4 = 16.
"the correct option is approximately option D"
Step-by-step explanation:
The question involves calculating total person-hours spent on a task, which is a basic mathematical concept. To answer this, you simply multiply the number of people by the number of hours each person worked. In this scenario, we have 4 people who each spent 4 hours laying sod. So, the calculation is 4 people x 4 hours/person = 16 person-hours. Therefore, the correct answer is D. 16.
To illustrate further, person-hours is a way of measuring the amount of work done by a group of people over a certain period. If one person works for one hour, that's one person-hour of work. When four people work for one hour, that's four person-hours because four times the work is being done in that hour compared to just one person.
Likewise, if one person works for four hours, that too is four person-hours. In this case, every person in the group of four is contributing four person-hours, so the total work done by the entire group is 4 people x 4 hours each = 16 person-hours total, making it a simple arithmetic problem often encountered in middle school math.