SOLUTION: Ready-mixed concrete is sold by the cubic yard. A landscaper contractor wants to form concrete paving blocks that are rectangular solids with dimensions 36 inches by 36 inches by

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Question 851536: Ready-mixed concrete is sold by the cubic yard. A landscaper contractor wants to form concrete paving blocks that are rectangular solids with dimensions 36 inches by 36 inches by 6 inches. Assuming there is no waste, how many such blocks can she expect to make from one cubic yard of concrete?
I know the answer is 6 but not sure how to solve it. I know there are 46656 inches in a cubic yard, but I'm not sure if I need to find surface area or volume.
Thank you! I'm a GED teacher and don't know how to explain this to my students
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
All GED teachers are good at basic math and beginning algebra, if not more.

36 inches is 1 yard.

The blocks to be made are 1 yard by 1 yard by (1/6)yard. "concrete paving blocks that are rectangular solids with dimensions 36 inches by 36 inches by 6 inches."
So the VOLUME of each block is 1%2A1%2A%281%2F6%29 CUBIC YARDS.

Now you have the question, How many of those blocks can be made from 1 cubic yard of concrete. Compare: Concrete blocks available as 1 cubic yard each. Block size wanted is (1/6) cubic yard. How many of the (1/6) cubic yard are contained in the available 1 cubic yard block?

Note, the question is to find how many blocks are possible from a given block. Stay with yards and cubic yards.