Question

Alan mixes 1 1/4 cups of milk with a can of condensed soup. He makes a total of 2 3/8 cups of soup. How many cups of condensed soup were in the can?

Answer 1

2 3/8 - 1 1/4
2 3/8 - 1 2/8 get a common denominator
1 1/8 subtract whole numbers and subtract fractions

Answer 2

There were 1 1/8 cups of condensed soup in the can.

Explanation:

Cups of condensed soup= Total amount of soup- cups of water

Cups of condensed soup= 2 3/8 cups- 1 1/4 cups

Since our fractions don't have the same denominator, we need to find the lowest common denominator. In this case, the lowest common denominator is 8 (8 is obviously only 8 and 4 goes into 8 two times).

We need to make our fractions equal, so if we have the common denominator of 8, we need to multiply the numerator of the second fraction by two (so it stays the same).

Cups of condensed soup = 2 3/8 - 1 2/8

Cups of condensed soup= 1 1/8 Cups