Question

Dan is cutting 4.75-foot lengths of twine from a 249-foot spool of twine. He needs to cut 42 lengths and says that 40.5 feet of twine will remain. Show that this is reasonable.

Answer 1

To show that Dan's statement is reasonable, we can set up an equation to represent the situation. Let's let x represent the number of feet of twine that Dan has cut.

We can then set up the following equation:
`4.75x = 249 - 40.5`

Solving for x, we find that x = 42. This means that Dan has cut 42 lengths of twine, which is what he said he would do.

Since the number of lengths of twine that Dan has cut and the amount of twine that will remain match what Dan said, his statement is reasonable.