Multiplying by fraction

Question

Yesterday the town if Harrigton received 7/8 inch of snow.  Today the town received 2/3 of yesterday's amount.  How much snow fell in Harrington today?

Answer 1

In many word problems there are signal words that tell us what operation we need to perform.  We are familiar with terms like "in all" or "together" which usually mean we will add or multiply to get the answer.  Words like "more than", "less than," "in each," or "difference" often signify subtraction or division.   In your example above, the word "of" usually means multiply.  So, 15% of 45 would be 15% x 45, or .15 x 45.  Knowing that the word "of" often means multiply will help you with future word problems.

 

Cheers!

 

Rebekah

Answer 2

What is 2/3 of 7/8?

 

In other words, can you multiply 2/3 * 7/8 to find the result, Cecilia? 

 

Remember that multiplication of fractions entails multiplying numerator times numerator over the denominator times the denominator.