Question

There are approximately 2.54 cm in 1 inch. what is the distance in inches of 14 cm. use a proportion to solve and round your answer to the nearest 10th of an inch

Answer 1

Proportions

We know that there are 2.54 cm in 1 inch

2.54 cm ⇔ 1 inch

We want to find what is the distance in inches of 14 cm:

14 cm ⇔ ?? inch

Then, we have the following equivalence:

14 cm ⇔ ?? inches

2.54 cm ⇔ 1 inch

If we divide both sides of the equivalence we would have the same proportion:

$\frac{14}{2.54}=\frac{?\text{?}}{1}$

Solving both sides of the equation:

$\begin{gathered} \frac{14}{2.54}=\frac{?\text{?}}{1} \\ \downarrow \\ 5.51=\text{??} \end{gathered}$

This means that:

14 cm ⇔ 5.51 in

Rounding the answer

We want to round our result to the nearest tenth. This is a number with one digit after the decimal point:

5.51 in ≅ 5.5 in

Answer: the distance in inches of 14 cm is 5.5 in