Page 411 - Basic College Mathematics with Early Integers

388 C HAPTE R 5 I RATIO, PROPORTION, AND MEASUREMENT

Objective Using Mixed U.S. System Units of Length

Sometimes it is more meaningful to express a measurement of length with mixed
units such as 1 ft and 5 in.We usually condense this and write 1 ft 5 in.
1
In Example 2, we found that 7 feet is the same as 2 yards. The measurement
3
can also be written as a mixture of yards and feet.That is,
7 ft = yd ft
Because 3 ft = 1 yd, we divide 3 into 7 to see how many whole yards are in 7 feet.
The quotient is the number of yards, and the remainder is the number of feet.

2 yd 1 ft
37
– 6
1

Thus, 7 ft = 2 yd 1 ft, as seen in the diagram:

7 ft

1 yd 1 yd 1 ft

PRACTICE 4 Example 4 Convert: 134 in. = _________ ft _________ in.
Convert: 68 in. = ______ ft
______ in. Solution: Because 12 in. = 1 ft, we divide 12 into 134. The quotient is the
number of feet. The remainder is the number of inches. To see why we divide 12
into 134, notice that
134 in. # 1 ft 134
134 in. = = ft
1 12 in. 12
11 ft 2 in.
12134
– 12
14
– 12
2
Thus, 134 in. = 11 ft 2 in.

Work Practice 4

PRACTICE 5 Example 5 Convert 3 feet 7 inches to inches.
Convert 5 yards 2 feet to feet.
Solution: First, we convert 3 feet to inches.Then we add 7 inches.
3 ft 12 in.
3 ft = # = 36 in.
1 1 ft
Then

3 ft 7 in.=36 in.+7 in.=43 in. Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Answers Work Practice 5
4. 5 ft 8 in. 5. 17 ft