Question

Zoe has some cloth. She uses the cloth to make 12 pillowcases. Each pillowcase uses 5/8m of the cloth. She still has 5/12m cloth left. How long is the cloth?

Answer 1

Zoe started with 7.917 meters of cloth.

Explanation:

If each pillowcase uses 5/8m of cloth and Zoe made 12 pillowcases, then the total amount of cloth used is:

(5/8) x 12 = 15/2 or 7.5 meters

If Zoe has 5/12m of cloth left, then the total amount of cloth she started with is:

7.5 + 5/12 = 90/12 + 5/12 = 95/12 or 7.917 meters

Therefore, Zoe started with 7.917 meters of cloth.