Andrea M. answered • 04/19/19
Math (up to algebra 1) and Native Spanish Ivy League Grad Summer Tutor
This is a division question. The problem says that a 15ft wire is cut into 8 equal pieces, another way to say this is that a 15ft wire is divided into 8 equal pieces. To find the answer, you simply divide 15 by 8, and get 1.875, so each piece is 1.875ft long, or if you round, you can say that each piece is approximately 2ft long.
If you don't have a calculator in hand, since you are asked for an approximate answer, you can also do it in the following way:
8 doesn't divide into 15 easily, so find the closest number to 15 that is a multiple of 8. In this case, that number is 16. You know that 16/8 = 2, since 15 is slightly smaller than 16, we know that 15/8 should therefore be slightly smaller than 2.
