Fernando is going to redo his kitchen and wants to put in wood laminate flooring. his kitchen is rectangular and measures 3 yards by 5 yards. the laminate tiles he is looking at measure 1/2 ft by 1 ft. how many tiles would fernando need to buy to redo his kitchen floor?

270 tiles

The kitchen measures 3 yards by 5 yards 
(For easy reference in the answer, length is assumed 3 yards and width 5 yards)

3 yards = 3 x 3 = 9 feet
5 yards = 5 x 3 = 15 feet

There are 2 ways to align the tiles.

Method 1: align the 1/2 ft as the length and 1ft as the width


Number of tiles on the length = 9 ÷ 1/2 = 18 tiles
Number of tiles on the width = 15 ÷ 1 = 15 tiles
Total titles = 18 x 15 = 270 tiles


Method 2: align the 1ft as the length and 1/2 ft as the width


Number of tiles on the length =9 ÷ 1= 9 tiles
Number of tiles on the width = 15 ÷ 1/2 = 30 tiles
Total titles = 30 x 9= 30 tiles

Either way, Fernando needs 270 tiles


270 tiles

If Fernando aligns the tiles so the short tile dimension is in the direction of the short kitchen dimension, he will need
.. (3 yd)/(1/6 yd) = 18 tiles
by
.. (5 yd)/(1/3 yd) = 15 tiles
for a total of
.. (18 * 15) = 270 tiles

The first one is 2/3the second is 1/160the third is 4/125