Question

Can someone help?

Zen wants to fill a window box with soil. The length of the window box is 5 feet, width is 6 inches, and height is 9 inches. Each bag of soil contains 0.625 cubic foot of soil. How many bags of soil will Zen need to fill the window box completely?

[1 foot = 12 inches]

Answer 1

I'm thinking its 432

Answer 2

Make use of the given length, width and depth of the window box to find its VOLUME in cubic inches. Then convert that result to cubic feet. What next?

I'd need to know how you obtained 432 (through seeing your work) before responding to y our "I thnk it's 432" post.

Answer 3

ok i got to it by

multiplying 5*6*9=270÷0.625=432

Answer 4

Why are you multiplying feet times inches?

Answer 5

ohhhh wait that's right my mistake so it would be
60*9*6=3240÷0.625=5184

Answer 6

But 0.625 has the units of cubic FEET?

Answer 7

yes

Answer 8

Your 3240 has the units of cubic INCHES?

Answer 9

yes

Answer 10

yes

Answer 11

... and so you'll need to convert from cubic inches to cubic feet.

Answer 12

well I get 332 cubic feet

Answer 13

432*

Answer 14

9 bags?

Answer 15

Sounds reasonable :-)

Answer 16

are you sure?

Answer 17

As a student, it is part of learning to make yourself sure :)

Answer 18

That is the best way of gaining confidence in your calculations.

Answer 19

I'm pretty sure because that's the lowest it can go without it being a decimal

Answer 20

no wait since each bag only contains 0.625 cubic feet of dirt it would be 270

Answer 21

What volume did you calculate?

Answer 22

432 × 0.625=270

Answer 23

6 inches = 0.5 feet

9 inches = 0.75 feet

Answer 24

Let's do a quick summary of this discussion:

The length of the box is 5 feet, or 60 inches.
The width is 6 inches.
The height (depth) is 9 inches.

Volume of the box is (length)(width)(height). Multiply: (60 inches)(6 inches)(9 inches)
to obtain the volume in cubic inches.

Next, look up or figure out how many cubic inches there are in 1 cubic foot.
As before, volume = length * width * height.

1 cubic ft = ? cubic inches

Answer 25

12 cubic inches

Answer 26

You can, of course, convert all of the box dimentions into feet, such as 0.5 ft., 0.75 ft and 60 ft.

The length of ONE SIDE of a 1-cubic foot cube is 12 inches.
What is the AREA of the base of this cube?
What is the HEIGHT of this cube?
What is the volume of this cube, in cubic feet?

Hint: 1 cubic foot is the equivalent of between 1,500 and 2,000 cubic inches.

Try again on that one.

The number of cubic inches in a cube of side length 12 inches is .... ?? cubic inches.

Answer 27

We want the volume of the planter in cubic feet, so that we can leave the 0.625 cubic foot volume of the bags of soil as is.

Answer 28

1728 cu in. = 1 cu ft

Answer 29

Thanks.

You said earlier:

"12wishs
12 cubic inches".

Unfortunately this is not correct. Look at what skullpatrol has posted, above.

He got 1,728 cubic inches by multiplying 12 inches times 12 inches times 12 inches.

@12wishes?

What's your next step? Goal: figure out how many bags of soil are needed to fill this one planter.

Answer 30

Working in feet gives $$\huge\dfrac{5*0.5*0.75}{0.625}$$

Answer 31

3

Answer 32

The numerator of this fraction gives us the VOLUME of the planter in cubic feet.
The denomiantor of this fraction represents the number of cubic feet in each bag.

@skullpatrol?

Answer 33

@12wishes: 3 what?

Answer 34

3 bags of dirt

Answer 35

Correct.

Answer 36

thank you both so much I wish I could give you both a medal

Answer 37

Thanks for asking :-)