Operations & Word Problems

Problem

Decimals convert small units to larger ones

A car drives 83.5 km every hour and burns 0.08 L of gasoline for each kilometer. At that same steady speed, how much gasoline does it use over a trip lasting 2 hours and 24 minutes?
Base-ten numbersMeasurement & data
Your answer
How to solve
Strategy Identify Subproblems — The trip answer is not one calculation but a chain: first turn 2 hours 24 minutes into hours as a decimal, then find the distance, then find the fuel. Breaking it into these smaller subproblems (tool 7) keeps each step simple, and tracking the units (tool 8) — minutes to hours, hours to km, km to liters — makes sure each multiplication is set up correctly.
1STEP 1

Write the time as hours in decimal form

An hour is 60 minutes, so 24 minutes is 24/60 = 0.4 and the time is 2.4 hours.

24 ÷ 60 = 0.4 → 2 h 24 min = 2.4 h
2STEP 2

Find the distance traveled

Since the car goes 83.5 km each hour, in 2.4 hours it covers 83.5 multiplied by 2.4 kilometers.

83.5 × 2.4 = 200.4 km
3STEP 3

Find the gasoline needed

Each kilometer uses 0.08 L, so 200.4 km uses 200.4 multiplied by 0.08 liters.

200.4 × 0.08 = 16.032 L
Answer
16.032 L
The units flow correctly: minutes became hours, hours times km/h gave km, and km times L/km gave L. As a magnitude check, in 1 hour the car would use 83.5 x 0.08 = 6.68 L, and 6.68 x 2.4 = 16.032 L, the same answer — and roughly 6.7 L per hour over almost 2.5 hours should be a bit over 16 L, which matches.
Takeaway

Turn the minutes into a decimal part of an hour first, then multiply step by step: hours to kilometers, kilometers to liters.

  • Write the time as hours in decimal form
  • Find the distance traveled
  • Find the gasoline needed
Where next?
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▶ Practice — 12 problems