hello
the area of the room is given by
[tex]8\frac{1}{2}by1\frac{1}{2}[/tex]let's convert the mixed fraction to improper fraction
[tex]\begin{gathered} 8\frac{1}{2}=\frac{17}{2} \\ 1\frac{1}{2}=\frac{3}{2} \end{gathered}[/tex]now, let's multiply the two dimensions given to find the area in squared feet.
[tex]\frac{17}{2}\times\frac{3}{2}=\frac{51}{4}[/tex]the area of the room is 51/4 ft^2
we can now find how many boxes of tiles will cover the room
1 box covers 10ft^2
let the number of boxes of tiles to cover 51/4ft^2 be represented by x
1 box = 10
x box = 51/4
[tex]\begin{gathered} 1=10 \\ x=\frac{51}{4} \\ \text{cross multiply both sides and solve for x} \\ 1\times\frac{51}{4}=10\times x \\ \frac{51}{4}=10x \\ \text{divide both sides by 10} \\ \frac{\frac{51}{4}}{10}=\frac{10x}{10} \\ x=\frac{51}{4}\times\frac{1}{10}=\frac{51}{40}=1.275 \end{gathered}[/tex]the number of boxes required to cover the room is 1.275 boxes and he'll need a minimum of 2 boxes to do so.
the answer is option B
