Question

You have a shelf that holds 25 1/2 pounds how many 1 1/4 pound books can the shelf hold? Explain your response

Answer 1

19 books because you are not going to put 2/5 of a book on the shelf

Answer 2

Shelf can hold 20 books.

Explanation:

Consider the provided information.

You have a shelf that holds 25 1/2 pounds

This can be written as:

`25(1)/(2)=(51)/(2)=25.5`

We need to find how many 1 1/4 pound books can the shelf hold.

`1(1)/(4)=(5)/(4)=1.25`

Thus the shelf can hold:

`(25.5)/(1.25)=20.4\approx 20`

That means Shelf can hold 20 such books.