Let’s follow along with an example problem. If we want to figure out how tall a 70 inch-tall girl is in feet, we’ll start by writing down 70 inches.
In our example, dividing 70 inches by 12 gets us 70 / 12 = 5. 83. We can also write this as 5 & 10/12 (5 & 5/6) or 5 remainder 10. See below for more information on remainders.
The answer we got was 5. 83, so we would write it as 5. 83 feet. The girl is 5. 83 feet tall.
In our example problem, 5. 83 × 12 = 70 inches. This was our original number of inches.
Let’s use an example problem to show how to do this. We’ll figure out how many feet 15. 4 inches and 15 & 2/5 inches are. These are the same numbers, just written differently. Decimal: 15. 4 / 12 = 1. 28 feet Fraction: 15 & 2/5 = (75 + 2)/5 = 77/5 inches. 77/5 inches / 12 = 77/5 × 1/12 = 77/60 feet, or 1 & 17/60 feet
For this section, let’s figure out how many feet 28 inches is. To start, we’ll divide 28 by 12. 28 / 12 = 2. 33.
In our example, 12 goes into 28 twice, plus some left over. 12 × 2 = 24. Since 28 is 4 more than 24, the remainder is 4. We could write our answer, 2. 33, as 2 R 4.
In our example, 12 goes into 28 twice, plus some left over. 12 × 2 = 24. Since 28 is 4 more than 24, the remainder is 4. We could write our answer, 2. 33, as 2 R 4.
In our example problem, we got an answer of 2 R 4. Since 2 is the whole number, we know we have two feet in our answer. Since 4 is the remainder, we know we have four inches. So, our answer is 2 feet, 4 inches.
In our example, we would start by multiplying 2 feet by 12. 2 × 12 = 24 inches. Add the 4 inches to this to get 28 inches. This is our original inches measurement.
