In a certain city the record rainfall during a an 24 hour period is 10 1/5 inches how much rain fell per hour on average

Answer 1

Students get confused with the word "per" in mathematics. It means divide. In this case the question wants the answer in inches per hour, which translates to in/hr. Now the numbers need to be put in so the problem becomes:

10.2 inches/24 hours = 0.425 in/hr notice I changed the fraction to a decimal 1/5 = 0.2

Another method could be to set it up as a proportion, then

10.2 inches = x inches the answer comes out the same of course

24 hours 1 hour