Question

You want to put a 4 inch thick layer of topsoil for a new 25 ft by 18 ft garden. The dirt store sells by the cubic yards. How many cubic yards will you need to order? The store only sells in increments of 1/4 cubic yards.

Answer 1

SOLUTION -

Let’s convert first the unit dimension of the garden from inches-feet to yards.

HEIGHT: 4 in * (1 ft / 12 in) = 1/3 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 1/9 yard

WIDTH: 28 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 28/3 yards

LENGTH: 32 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 32/3 yards

Then, let’s get the total soil capacity or volume of the garden:

(32/3) * (28/3) * (1/9) = 896/81 = 11.06 cubic yards

Since we can’t buy 0.06 cubic yard of soil, we need to round off 11.06 to the next number of cubic yards that is exactly divisible by 1/4.

It will give us then with 11 & 1/4 cubic yards.

Answer 2

You want to put a 4-inch thick layer of topsoil for a new 28ft by 32ft garden. The dirt store sells by the cubic yards. How many cubic yards will you need to order? The store only sells in increments of 1/4 cubic yards.

Get ready for Codegeist, remote hackathon for Atlassian tools.

Let’s convert first the unit dimension of the garden from inches-feet to yards.

HEIGHT: 4 in * (1 ft / 12 in) = 1/3 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 1/9 yard

WIDTH: 28 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 28/3 yards

LENGTH: 32 ft * (1 yard/3 ft) = 32/3 yards

Then, let’s get the total soil capacity or volume of the garden:

(32/3) * (28/3) * (1/9) = 896/81 = 11.06 cubic yards

Since we can’t buy 0.06 cubic yard of soil, we need to round off 11.06 to the next number of cubic yards that is exactly divisible by 1/4.

It will give us then with 11 & 1/4 cubic yards.

*** If the store sells soil on a per 1/4 cu yard, in a sack, then the total no. of sacks of soil that will be needed is, (11 & 1/4) / (1/4) = 45 sacks