If a Ferris wheel can accommodate 60 people in 15 minutes, how many people can ride the Ferris wheel in 6 hours?

Answer 1

Hi Mel!

There are a couple ways to approach this one. If we look at it realistically... people are constantly getting on an off Ferris wheels. In this case, over the span of 15 minutes, 60 people got on (and off). Every time someone new gets on, someone else gets off.

60 people divided by 15 minutes gives us 4 people per minute getting on the ferris wheel.

6 hours times 60 hours per minute gives us 360 minutes total. So, if we are adding 4 riders per minute for 360 minutes, 4*360 = 1440 people.

Another way to look at it: 15 minutes is a quarter (1/4) of an hour. So if we multiply the number of riders in 15 minutes by four, we will get the number of riders in an hour. 60*4 = 240 riders per hour.

We can then multiply the number of riders per hour by 6 to get the number of riders in 6 hours. 240*6 = 1440 riders.