A stack of boards is 24 inches high. Each board is 3/8 of an inch thick. How many boards are in the stack?

Question

I Just need to know how many boards are in the stack!

Answer 1

Emma, imagine an easier problem:

You have a stack 24 inches high, and all the boards are 2 inches thick. How many boards are there?

How would you solve that?

You would think—

boards = stack / thickness

then you would put the numbers in:

boards = 24 / 2

boards = 12

So for your current problem

boards = 24 / (3/8)

Now you have to divide a fraction into a whole number. To do that, (a) change the division to multiplication and (b) invert the fraction.

in other words,

boards = 24 * (8/3)

I’ll bet you can take it from there.