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Systems of Measurement: example 7.53 · Physics Playground

Exercises Expressions, exponents and radicals

Example 7.53 from Prealgebra, 7.5 Systems of Measurement

Systems of Measurement: example 7.53

Ryland is $1.6$ meters tall. His younger brother is $85$ centimeters tall. How much taller is Ryland than his younger brother?

Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.

Solution
We will subtract the lengths in meters. Convert $85$ centimeters to meters by moving the decimal $2$ places to the left; $85$ cm is the same as $0.85$ m.

Now that both measurements are in meters, subtract to find out how much taller Ryland is than his brother.

$\begin{matrix} 1.60 m \\ \underset{_______}{−0.85 m} \\ 0.75 m \end{matrix}$

Ryland is $0.75$ meters taller than his brother.

Your turn

The book's Try It right after this example: same idea, new numbers. Only the answer is given.

Mariella is $1.58$ meters tall. Her daughter is $75$ centimeters tall. How much taller is Mariella than her daughter? Write the answer in centimeters.

How did it go?

PreviousSystems of Measurement: example 7.52 Next Systems of Measurement: example 7.54

From Prealgebra (1st edition) by OpenStax (Rice University), section 7.5, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Original at openstax.org. We split the solution into steps; the words, numbers and figures are the book's. OpenStax doesn't endorse this site.

Solution

Your turn