Answer: the length of Lucia's piece of wood is 10 1/8 inches
Explanation:
Carmen has a piece of wood that measures 8 1/2 inches in length. Converting 8 1/2 inches to improper fraction, it becomes 17/2 inches.
Lucia has a piece of wood that is 1 5/8 longer than Carmens. Converting 1 5/8 inches to improper fraction, it becomes 13/8 inches. This means that the length of Lucia's piece of wood would be
17/2 + 13/8 = (68 + 13)/8 = 81/8 inches.
Converting to mixed fraction, it becomes
10 1/8 inches