Problem Solving

A straight picket fence is comprised of "x" pickets each of which are 1/2 inch wide. If there are 6 inches between each pair of pickets which of the followign represents the length of the fence in feet

1) 13x/2

2) 13x/2 - 6

3) 13x/24

4) (13x + 1) / 24

5) (13x - 12) /24

The easiest thing to do here is pick a number for x. Let's say x=12 Since each picket is 1/2" wide, there are 6" of pickets, or 1/2' (remember that the answer is in feet).

But the fence has 6" in between each picket. There are 11 spaces in between the pickets. So there is a total of 5.5' of space.

If we add those together, we get 6' total. Now we plug in x=12 into all the answer choices, and see which one gives us an answer of 6. (5) does just that.

Cybermusings wrote:A straight picket fence is comprised of "x" pickets each of which are 1/2 inch wide. If there are 6 inches between each pair of pickets which of the followign represents the length of the fence in feet

1) 13x/2

2) 13x/2 - 6

3) 13x/24

4) (13x + 1) / 24

5) (13x - 12) /24

And for the equation inclined folks ...

x*0.5/12 + (x-1)*6/12
= (6.5x - 6) / 12
= (13x - 12) / 24