how many bags of trail mix can she make?

Question

caroline is making trail mix to take on her girl scout camping trip this weekend. she is going to share the trail mix with the girls in her troop. she makes 4 pounds of trail mix. she buys gallon size ziploc bags to put the trail mix in for each girl. she wants to put 1/4 pound of trail mix in each bag.how many bags of trail mix can she make? expalin how you know. draw a model and write and solve an equation to justify your answer.

Answer 1

Hello Stephanie! :)

 

For these kinds of questions, you have to first write down the key information that you would use to write and solve the equation. The key information would be anything related to the words "bag of trail mix" and "pounds" in this specific problem, and they typically always have a number with them. 

 

So the key information would be "4 pounds of trail mix" and "1/4 pound of trail mix in each bag".

 

Then you have to figure out what you need to answer, which is "How many bags of trail mix can she make?"

 

To solve this, you use the key information you took from the word problem earlier, like so:

 

There will be 1/4 of a pound of trail mix in each bag, and there are 4 pounds. This is a division problem, which means we will be dividing the 4 pounds by 1/4 of a pound. 4 divided by 1/4 would be the same as 4 multiplied by 4, because we're taking a number and dividing it by a small fraction. 4 multiplied by 4 is 16. Therefore, the answer is "Caroline can make 16 bags of trail mix." 

 

Drawing a model is a bit difficult on here, so I'll try to explain it as best I can. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions if you don't understand it, okay? :3 

 

For the model, since it's about bags of trail mix, you can draw four circles to represent the four pounds of trail mix. Then, below that, you can draw another four circles and divide each one into four, just like previously when 4 was divided by 1/4. After that, you can number each part of each circle from 1 to 16, making "16 bags of trail mix". 

 

The equation would be 4/(1/4)=x, x representing the number of trail mix bags. Then you simplify the equation to 4*4=x, as dividing by a fraction becomes multiplying by it's reciprocal. Finally, you solve: x=16.

 

Hope this helped you, and again if you don't understand something I said or it doesn't make sense, ask for me to explain it better. :3 

 

 

Answer 2

Hi Stephanie,

 

If Caroline had only 1/4 pound of trail mix she could make only one bag.  How do you get 1?  By dividing 1/4 by 1/4.

 

If she had 1 pound of trail mix, she could make 4 bags because 1 divided by 1/4 equals 4 . . . there are 4 quarters in one.

 

When you divide fractions, you flip the second fraction (its reciprocal) and then multiply.  So in my last example:

 

1/1 divided by 1/4 equals 1/1 times 4/1 = 4

 

Now I'll let you figure how many bags she can make from 4 pounds of trail mix.

 

Have fun.

 

Dan