Chapter 6.3, Problem 12PPS

To determine

The minutes an average American student spends on watching television per day.

Answer to Problem 12PPS

The average American student spends $246.58$ minutes per day watching television.

Explanation of Solution

Given information:

The average American student spends almost $1500$ hours per year watching television.

Formula used:

A day contains 24 hours and hours and minutes are related to each other by a mathematical equation which is expressed as,

  $1\text{hour}=60\text{minutes}$

A year has $365$ days which can be mathematically expressed as,

  $1\text{year}=365\text{days}$

Calculation:

Consider the provided statement “The average American student spends almost $1500$ hours per year watching television.”

Recall that the conversion rule that 1 hour is $60$ minutes.

So, $1500$ hours is evaluated as when $1500$ is multiplied by $60$ .

Therefore, $1500$ hours is,

  $\begin{array}{c}1\text{hr}=60\min \\ 1500\text{hrs}=\left(1500\times 60\right)\min \\ 1500\text{hrs}=90,000\min \end{array}$

Now, recall that a year contains $365$ days and conversion rule that $1\text{year}=365\text{days}$ .

So, minutes per day, the average American spends on watching television, will be evaluated as when $90,000$ is divided by $365$ , as,

  $\begin{array}{c}365\text{days}=90,000\min \\ 1\text{day}=\frac{90,000}{365}\min \\ 1\text{day}=246.575\min \end{array}$

Rounding off to the nearest hundredth,

  $1\text{day}=246.58\min$

Hence, the average American student spends $246.58$ minutes per day watching television.