Amount - Rope

[Guest]

An amount of rope was ordered from a local hardware store. When the customer went to pickup the rope, it was discovered the clerk had miswritten the order and interchanged feet and inches. The customer received only 30 percent of amount requested.

Calculate amount of rope requested and amount received.

[Guest]

Let X = feet of rope ordered
let Y = inches (as part of a foot) ordered
So he orders X feet Y inches and gets the X and Y mixed up.

0.3(12X + Y) = 12Y + X
this gives X = 4.5Y

So everytime he orders so that the number of feet is 4.5 times the number of inches he will get 30 % of what he ordered.
If he orders the same number of feet and inches it does not matter about mixup. 2 feet 2 inches etc is same both ways.

Keep it in whole number feet and inches.

This occurs at:-
9 feet 2 inches
18 feet 4 inches etc, etc,etc

[Guest]

Thanks.