Question

A plumber has an 8-foot piece of cooper pipe. He needs to cut a 3-foot 10-inche piece of cooper pipe to repair a leak in a sink's water line. How many inches of cooper pipe will he have left after he makes the repair?

Answer 1

50 inches

Explanation:

Since you want the result in inches, you can convert both measures to inches before subtracting.

8 ft = 8 × 12 in = 96 in

3 ft = 3 × 12 in = 36 in

so 3 ft 10 in = 36 in + 10 in = 46 in

__

The amount of pipe remaining is ...

96 in - 46 in = 50 in

The plumber will have 50 inches of copper pipe left after the repair.