How do you convert tons of rock to square yards?

Answer 1

This depends on how much rock you will use per square yard. Suppose you intend to use 1/100 tons (=20 lb) per square yard. Then if you have one ton of rock, it will cover 100 square yards. Similarly, if you intended to use 1/50 tons per square yard, 1 ton will cover 50 square yards. In general you want to use factor labeling:

If you are using x tons per square yard, then write this as

(1 square yard) / (x tons of rock) = (1/x)*(square yards/tons of rock)

This is called a conversion factor. Now, if you have some quantity of rock, say y tons of rock, and you want to see how many square yards it would cover you just multiply

(y tons of rock)*(1/x)*(square yards/tons of rock) =

y/x (square yards*tons of rock/tons of rock) =

y/x square yards

since the labels just divide out.