Maths Word Problem?

Question

With the season of giving upon us, let us use 26,000 as the population value of the city of Winchester. A standard gift box has dimensions 8.5”x12”x2” and gifts are wrapped in paper covering the box. A recent survey estimated that the average number of holiday gifts given by most individuals is 2.3 gifts each. The problem here is to determine, according to the given data, how much paper is used to wrap the gifts for the population in the city of Winchester.

Answer 1

OK, first, calculate the amount of wrapping paper used on a single present. Of course, some extra paper is used in the various folds and such, but I get the feeling that all this question is interested in is the amount of paper needed to cover the surface of the box. The surface area is equal to the combined area of the sides. So you have two sides which are 8.5"x2" or 17 in^2. You have two sides which are 12"x2" or 24 in^2. And you have the top and bottom, which are each 8.5"x12" or 102 in^2. So the total surface area is 2(17) + 2(24) + 2(102) = 34 + 48 + 204 = 286 square inches per present.

Next, calculate the amount of wrapping paper used per person. Since the average person wraps 2.3 gifts, they would need enough wrapping paper for 2.3 boxes. That's 2.3 * 286 or 657.8 square inches per person.

Next, calculate the amount of paper used by the whole town, That's 657.8 square inches per person * 26000 people = 17102800 square inches.

Finally, I'd get this into a more manageable form if I were you. I think a standard roll of wrapping paper is a yard across, so I'll put the result into square yards. There are 36 inches in a yard, so there are 36^2 or 1296 square inches in a square yard. So you divide the number of square inches by 1296 to get 13,196.6 square yards.

(I realize that from the wording of the problem, you're probably not American, but if you need it converted into metric, I'm afraid you're on your own.)

Answer 2

first you gotta find the SA of the box! (which would be 8.5*12*2 + 12*12*4) - whatever that is, lets call it X

then you take the srface area, and multiply it by 2.3
giving you the new surface area (x*2.3) - which is the SA that the average person uses

then take your new X and multiply it by 26,000
to get your answer! (y)

now you have it in in2

Answer 3

If something is 40% smaller, you purely subtract 40%. So 40% of 40 energy is 16: you're trying this through multiplying 40 through 0.4. the reply might want to be 40 - 16 = 24 A shorter way might want to easily be to multiply through 40 through 0.6, because that is a million-0.4.

Answer 4

hmm...
if you find the surface it would be 2ab+2bc+2ca lets call it X
26,000 people 2.3 gifts each
giving totally 59800 gifts
so i guess it will be X*59800
Xin2 of paper used