A man goes to buy turkey and is given 3 slices that way 1/3 of a pound together he can onlu eat 1/4 of a pound how much of the 3 slices can he eat?

Question

A man is on a diet and goes to the deli counter to buy some turkey slices. He is given 3 slices that together weigh 1/3 of a pound, but his diet says he is only allowed to eat 1/4 of a pound. How much of the 3 slices can he eat while still staying on his diet?

Answer 1

This question tests work with fractions, especially dividing fractions by fractions. 

 

The three slices of turkey way 1/3 of a pound together. This means we need to take 1/3 of the 1/3 pound in order to find out how much each slice weighs. (1/3) / 3 or (1/3) * (1/3) gives us 1/9. When we multiply fractions together, we multiple straight across the numerators (1 * 1) and then straight across the denominators (3 * 3) and that's how we got 1/9. 

 

If each slice is 1/9 of a pound and the man can eat 1/4 of a pound, we need to find how many times 1/9 goes into 1/4. To do this, we divide 1/4 by 1/9. This can be written like this: 

 

(1/4)

------

(1/9) 

 

When we divide fractions by fractions, it's the same thing as multiplying the dividend (top) by the reciprocal of the divisor (bottom). The reciprocal of the fraction is the fraction "flipped" where the numerator becomes the denominator and vice versa. If you have a whole number, the reciprocal is 1 divided by that number. That gives us

 

1      9

-   *  -

4      1

 

From here we do as we did before: multiply the numerators straight across and then do the same for the denominators. Thus, we end up with 9/4. That's an improper fraction and it's kind of hard to say what 9/4 slices is, so let's turn it into a mixed number. 

 

4 goes into 9 2 times with 1 leftover. So our whole number is 2 and our fraction is 1/4. 

 

Our man can eat 2 and 1/4 slices of turkey. Not nearly enough!