Phil has a strip of wood that is 16 feet long. He needs 5-foot pieces to trim some windows. What are the possible number of pieces he can cut out

Question

Write and solve the inequality 

Answer 1

Let x be the maximum number of pieces Phil can cut.  If we put the pieces together, their length would be 5x, and this cannot be longer than 16.

 

5x ≤ 16

x ≤ 3.2

 

So Phil can only cut less than 3.2 pieces.  So he can cut out 3 pieces or 2 pieces or 1 piece.