A carpenter installing cabinets uses thin pieces of material called shims to fill gaps. The carpenter uses four shims to fill a gap that is 1.5 centimeters wide. The widths of three of the shims are 0.75 centimeter, 0.125 centimeter, and 0.1 centimeter. What is the width of the fourth shim?

Answer 1

To find the width of the fourth shim, we first need to sum the widths of the three shims provided and then subtract that total from the total gap width.

The widths of the three shims are:

• First shim: 0.75 cm
• Second shim: 0.125 cm
• Third shim: 0.1 cm

Let's calculate the total width of these three shims:

\[ \text{Total width of three shims} = 0.75 + 0.125 + 0.1 \]

Calculating step-by-step:

1. \( 0.75 + 0.125 = 0.875 \)
2. \( 0.875 + 0.1 = 0.975 \)

So, the total width of the three shims is \( 0.975 \) cm.

Now we subtract this from the total gap width of \( 1.5 \) cm to find the width of the fourth shim:

\[ \text{Width of fourth shim} = 1.5 - 0.975 \]

Calculating this:

\[ 1.5 - 0.975 = 0.525 \]

Therefore, the width of the fourth shim is \( \boxed{0.525} \) cm.