It was my daughter's birthday and I asked my wife to bring a ribbon to tie the gift I had purchased for her. She went to a shop and accidentally interchanged the feet with inches and brought the wrong length of ribbon.
When I measured the ribbon, I came to know that it is just 5/8 of the length that was required. Can you calculate the length of the ribbon I had asked for?
Solution:
Let A be the feet and B be the inches of length I asked for
Converting feet into inches,
We can say that I asked for (12*A + B) inches
According to the question
My wife interchanged the feet and inches
Which means that I got B feet and A inches of length
Or (12*B + A) inches of length
Now as per the details given in the question
(5/8) * (12*A+B) = (12*B + A)
A = (91/52) B
Now B is the variable for inches thus it must be something between 1 and 12 only and A must be a whole number.
In such case, putting B as 4 is the only possible way that it can stand true.
Thus A = (91/52) 4
Or A = 7.
Thus I asked for 7 feet and 4 inches of Ribbon and my wife brought me 4 feet and 7 inches instead.