Question

A tiger can cross a 13 feet wide canal. A lion can cross a canal whose width is \[\dfrac{9}{13}\] of the canal crossed by the tiger. A hare can cross the canal, which is \[\dfrac{1}{3}\]of the canal crossed by the lion. Find the width of the canal crossed by the hare.

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, then from the width of the canal crossed by the tiger we can get the width of canal crossed by the lion. We then can calculate the width of the canal crossed by the hare from the value of the width of canal crossed by the lion.

Complete step-by-step answer:
1. Equation: A statement of equality of two algebraic expressions involving two or more unknown variables is called equation.
2. Solution of an Equation: A particular set of values of the variables, which when substituted for the variables in the equation makes the two sides of the equation equal, is called the solution of the equation.
Now, let us assume that the width of the canal crossed by lion be y.
\[\begin{align}
  & \Rightarrow y=\dfrac{9}{13}\left( 13 \right) \\
 & \Rightarrow y=\dfrac{9}{13}\times 13 \\
 & \therefore y=9 \\
\end{align}\]
 Let us assume that the width of the canal crossed by the hare as z.
\[\begin{align}
  & \Rightarrow z=\dfrac{1}{3}y \\
 & \Rightarrow z=\dfrac{1}{3}\times 9 \\
 & \therefore z=3 \\
\end{align}\]
Hence, the width of the canal crossed by the hare is 3 feet.

Note: Instead of assigning various variables for the width of the canal crossed by the lion and hare we can directly calculate it. We need to assume the width of the canal crossed by the hare as some variable and then directly multiply all the given three values which gives the final result.
\[\begin{align}
  & \Rightarrow x=\dfrac{1}{3}\times \dfrac{9}{13}\times 13 \\
 & \therefore x=3 \\
\end{align}\]
It is important to note that we need to multiply the given fraction with the width of the canal crossed by the tiger and the lion because doing any other arithmetical operation would be incorrect. Also, neglecting any of the terms gives wrong results.