Question

An insect's body is 1/10 inch long. The insect's head is 3/100 inch long. Is the combined length of the insect's body and head longer or shorter than 4/10? Explain

Answer 1

The insect's combined body length is shorter than 4/10

Explanation:

To get the combined length of the insect's body, we add the length of the head of the insect to the length of the body of the insect.

The body of the insect is 1/10 inch long and the head of the insect is 3/100 inch long. Hence, its combined body length is:

`L = (1)/(10) + (3)/(100)`

Finding the Lowest Common Multiple of the denominators and simply, we have:

`L = (10 + 3)/(100) = (13)/(100)`

The combined body length of the insect is 13/100 inches.

13/100 is smaller than 4/10 (4/10 is equivalent to 40/100).

Hence, the insect's combined body length is shorter than 4/10.

Note: if we are to pay attention to units, we would not be able to compare 13/100 inches to 4/10 because 4/10 is unitless.