Maya has 54 cubic feet in her garden. She already has 4.5 cubic feet of soil. Soil bags have 1.5 cubic feet. How many bags should Maya purchase?
The correct answer and explanation is:
To determine how many bags of soil Maya needs to purchase, we must first calculate how much more soil she needs and then how many bags are required to meet that need.
Step-by-step Calculation:
- Total soil needed:
Maya needs 54 cubic feet of soil in total. - Soil she already has:
Maya has 4.5 cubic feet of soil. - Soil still needed: 54−4.5=49.5 cubic feet54 – 4.5 = 49.5 \text{ cubic feet}
- Each bag contains:
Each soil bag contains 1.5 cubic feet of soil. - Number of bags needed:
To find how many bags she needs: 49.51.5=33\frac{49.5}{1.5} = 33
✅ Correct Answer: Maya should purchase 33 soil bags.
💡 300-Word Explanation:
This problem involves basic subtraction and division. Maya has a garden that requires a specific volume of soil—54 cubic feet. She already possesses 4.5 cubic feet, meaning she doesn’t need the full 54. To find out how much more soil she needs, we subtract what she already has from the total: 54−4.5=49.5 cubic feet54 – 4.5 = 49.5 \text{ cubic feet}
Now we know that Maya still needs 49.5 cubic feet of soil. The next part of the problem involves determining how many standard-sized bags she must purchase. Each bag provides 1.5 cubic feet. To figure out how many of these 1.5 cubic-foot bags will fill the remaining 49.5 cubic feet, we divide: 49.5÷1.5=3349.5 \div 1.5 = 33
This tells us that 33 bags are required to exactly match the remaining soil volume. It is important to note that this division worked out evenly—there is no need to round up, and no partial bags are needed. If the division had resulted in a fraction (like 33.2), then Maya would need to round up to 34, because soil isn’t typically sold in partial bags.
This type of math problem teaches practical skills in volume, unit conversions, and resource estimation, which are essential in gardening, landscaping, or any construction-related task.