If you would like to know how many pencils does Melanie use up in an hour, you can calculate this using the following steps:
14 pencils ... 4/9 of an hour = 4/9 of 60 minutes = 4/9 * 60 = 80/3 minutes
x pencils = ? ... one hour = 60 minutes
14 * 60 = 80/3 * x /*3
14 * 60 * 3 = 80 * x
80 * x = 2520 /80
x = 2520 / 80
x = 31.5 pencils
The correct result would be 32 pencils in one hour.
