Colby wants to set square tiles on the top of a wooden box the top of the box is a rectangle 7½ inches long and 5½ inches wide. how many ½ inch tiles would colby need to cover the top of the box?

Well first here we need to take 7.5*5.5=41.25 now this number here is the area of the box now we need to take 41.25/.5 to see how many 1/2 inch area tiles would fit on top of this box, and 41.25/.5=82.5 and that should be your end answer enjoy!=) 
(P.s. please let me know if this was correct thanks!=)

So 1/2 inch tiles
assuming that that is the area of each and it is 1/2 square inches that each tile is taking up

so find area on top of box
area=legnth times width
legnth =7 and 1/2 or 7.5
width=5 and 1/2 or 5.5
area=legnth times width
area=7.5 times 5.5 (use calculator)
area=41.25 square inches

so area=41.25
we want to find out how many 1/2 tiles will fit. (if we want to find how many 4's fit into 2 then we divide 4 by 2 and do 4/2 and get 2)
 so we divide by 1/2 or 0.5
41.25/0.5=82.5
you can't put 0.5 tile on the box so round down to 82

the answer is 82 tiles (if teacher want's decimals, say 82.5 tiles )

Yea they are simplyfiy the ratios