Question

Mr. Garza bought 2 1/2 pounds of potatoes one evening. His family .75 of the potatoes for dinner on the same evening. If there are five members in the family and they all ate an equal portion of the potatoes at dinner, how much did they eat?

Answer 1

let's convert the 2 and 1/2 to "improper", and let's keep in mind that 0.75 is just 3/4.

so, what is .75 of 2 and 1/2? well is just their product,


`\bf \stackrel{mixed}{2(1)/(2)}\implies \cfrac{2\cdot 2+1}{2}\implies \stackrel{improper}{\cfrac{5}{2}} \qquad \qquad \qquad 0.75\implies \cfrac{075}{100}\implies \cfrac{3}{4}\\\\ -------------------------------\\\\ \cfrac{5}{2}\cdot \cfrac{3}{4}\implies \cfrac{15}{8}`


`\bf \textit{5 family members, thus, how many times does 5 go into }(15)/(8)? \\\\\\ \cfrac{\quad (15)/(8)\quad }{5}\implies \cfrac{\quad (15)/(8)\quad }{(5)/(1)}\implies \cfrac{15}{8}\cdot \cfrac{1}{5}\implies \cfrac{3}{8}\implies 0.375`