Suppose that 12 inches of wire costs 36 cents.

Question

At the same rate, how much (in cents) will 6 inches of wire cost?

Answer 1

To find out how much 6 inches of wire will cost, we can set up a proportion using the cost and the length of the wire. Let's call the cost of 6 inches of wire x cents.

Using the given information, we have the proportion:

12 inches of wire is to 36 cents as 6 inches of wire is to x cents.

This can be written as:

12/36 = 6/x

We can simplify this by dividing both sides of the equation by 12:

1/3 = 6/x

Now, we can cross multiply:

x = 6 * 3

x = 18

Therefore, 6 inches of wire will cost 18 cents.