Sandy ate 1/6 of a candy bar. John ate 3/4 of it. How much more of the candy bar did John eat than Sandy?

Question

Need to know how to work the problem

Answer 1

Hi Danielle!

 

This problem involves subtracting dissimilar fractions.

 

Step 1: Identify the minuend and the subtrahend then write the equation.

 

            3/4 - 1/6 = n

 

Step 2: Make both fractions "similar". They should have the same denominator. Get the least common denominator. For 3/4 and 1/6, you can use 12 as common denominator. Hence, 3/4 is equivalent to 9/12 and 1/6 can be expressed as 2/12.

 

Step 3: 9/12 - 2/12 = 7/12. Now that they have the same denominators, perform the subtraction process.

 

Then, John ate 7/12 more of the candy than Sandy.

 

Hope that helps.