Please Help I Don’t Understand

Question

An electrician has 6 feet of wire. He cuts the wire into pieces that are 1/2 of a foot in length. How many pieces of wire is he able to cut? Include a model and equation with your answer.

Answer 1

Answer 2

The wire is measured in feet. It doesn't matter how many feet it is yet. He cuts the wire into half of one foot pieces. That means that each piece is 1/2 of the unit. If something is 1/2 the size of something else, you can have 2 pieces in each unit. So, 2 x each piece fit in each foot. Now, you have 6 feet. In each foot you can have 2 pieces. I will draw it with minus sign lines.

1 foot 2 feet 3 feet 4 feet 5 feet 6 feet

------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------

1 p 2 p 3 p 4 p 5 p 6 p 7 p 8 p 9 p 10 p 11 p 12 p

Where p is piece

Just to show you how great math is, when we solve the problem with math, we don't need to draw every piece. The solution is:

N= number of pieces L=length of each piece L=1/2 feet. Therefore (=>) feet=2L

length= 6 feet Therefore (=>) N=feet x length=6 x 2.

Once you have learned enough math, you will be able to skip steps and simply say, there are 2 pieces in each feet. That is 2 x feet. There are 6 feet. Therefore, there are 6 x 2 = 12.

This is why some of us love math. It helps us solve problems fast and easy.

Answer 3

6 divided by 1/2 = 6 times 2 = 12 pieces

6/(1/2) = 6(2/1) = 12

you can convert division to multiplication by flipping the fractional divisor upside down, change 1/2 to 2/1

then multiply 6 x 2/1 = 12/1 = 12

divide the total length by the length of a piece, 6/(1/2) to get the number of pieces

6 feet divided by 1/2 foot = 6ft/(1/2)ft = 12