# Chewing Gum and Miles ?

• Sep 15th 2011, 05:58 AM
Bluerain
Chewing Gum and Miles ?
Well I'm not sure if I have the correct answer myself so any help would be nice.

How many miles would it be if I had 30 million sticks
of gum ....each stick of gum is 3 and half inches long ?

Thanks
• Sep 15th 2011, 07:38 AM
emakarov
Re: Chewing Gum and Miles ?
What answer did you get and how did you get it?
• Sep 15th 2011, 08:38 AM
Bluerain
Re: Chewing Gum and Miles ?
I just multiplied 30 mil by 3.5 which =105 million inches and knew there were 63, 360 inches in a mile and went from there by dividing 63,360 by 105 million.

I'm sure there is a shorter way ..correct ?

• Sep 15th 2011, 09:18 AM
emakarov
Re: Chewing Gum and Miles ?
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluerain
and went from there by dividing 63,360 by 105 million.

The other way around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluerain
I'm sure there is a shorter way ..correct ?

No, that's pretty much how it should be done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluerain

I agree, except that the last digit should be 7 due to rounding (since the following digit is 9 in my calculation). If the first thrown away digit is >= 5, the last remaining digit is increased by 1.
• Sep 15th 2011, 09:24 AM
e^(i*pi)
Re: Chewing Gum and Miles ?
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluerain
I just multiplied 30 mil by 3.5 which =105 million inches and knew there were 63, 360 inches in a mile and went from there by dividing 63,360 by 105 million.

I'm sure there is a shorter way ..correct ?

For notation's sake I will write $105,000,000 = 1.05 \cdot 10^8$
$1.05 \times 10^8 \text{ in} \times \dfrac{1 \text{ ft}}{12 \text { inch}} \times \dfrac{1 \text{ yd}}{3 \text{ ft}} \times \dfrac{1 \text{ mi}}{1760 \text{ yd}}$
$1.05 \times 10^8 \times \dfrac{1}{12 \times 3 \times 1760} \text{ miles} = 1657 \text{ miles}$