about mass

Question

the mass of a tiger is 135 kilograms and the cat has mass of5000 grams. how many times greater is the mass of the tiger on the cat?

Answer 1

Hi Jackeline;

With any equation such as this, you must first analyze the units.  Are these the same?  These are not.  The tiger's mass is presented in kilograms, whereas that of the cat is presented in grams.  In the future, you may find math word problems which combine pounds with grams, etc.

tiger=135 kg

cat=5000 g

Let's convert the mass of the cat...

5000 g(1 kg/1000 g)

Let's cancel units...

Grams is represented outside of the parenthetical equation as a numerator.

Grams is also represented within the parenthetical equation as a denominator.

These cancel.

5000(1 kg/1000)

The three zeros also cancel...

5(1 kg/1)=5 kg

 

tiger=135 kg

cat=5 kg

 

135=5x

x=multiplying factor.

Let's divide both sides by 5...

135/5=(5x)/5

27=x

 

The tiger weighs 27 times as much as the cat.