Please help?

Question

I have tried everything I know of

A recycling center can recycle 1500 pounds of aluminum in one hour. How many hours will it take them to recycle 10 tons of aluminum? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. (Hint: 1 ton = 2000 pounds.)

Answer 1

convert the pounds to tons first

1500 (pounds per hour)/2000 (pounds in a ton) = .75 tons per hour

10 (tons to process) / .75 (tons per hour) = 13.33 hours or 13 hours and 20 minutes. The nearest 10th is 13.3 hours.

We could also convert our 10 tons to pounds and work this way.

10 (tons) * 2000 (pounds in a ton) = 20,000 pounds
20,000 (pounds to process) / 1500 (pounds per hour) = 13.34 hours or 13 hours and 20 minutes.

We can check the work:

13.3 hours of processing .75 tons per hour we'd do 13.3 * .75 which is 9.975 (remember, we rounded so this is 10)

so, your formula is

pounds to process / pounds per hour = hours needed
tons to process / tons per hour = hours needed

we just have to remember to use either pounds or tons but we can't mix them in the same formula. ☺

Answer 2

They're right, 13.333 hours

1500 pounds an hour
1500 pounds divided by 60 minutes = 25 pound per minute
2000 pounds divided by 25 = 80 minutes to process the 2000 pounds
10 tons times 80 minutes (per ton) = 800 minutes
800 minutes divided by 60 minutes = 13.33333

Answer 3

KNOWN : 1500pounds/ 1 hour
1ton = 2000 pounds

10 tons / ? hour

1500 pounds = .75 tons

.75 tons / 1 hour
10 tons / ? hour

13.3 hours

Answer 4

Thats a really hard problem.... it might be 13.333333