Can you help me answer the word problem below?

Question

Emeril mixed 3/8 cup balsamic vinegar with 6/8 cup oil to make a salad dressing. Then he used 1/8 cup of the mixture for a large salad. How much oil and vinegar mixture was left over?

Answer 1

To answer this question, you can use your knowledge of adding and subtracting fractions.

 

Step 1:  3/8 vinegar + 6/8 oil = 9/8 mixture; you can keep this as an improper fraction for now.

Step 2:  9/8 mixture - 1/8 he used for the salad = left over

Step 3:  Subtract the fractions.  They have the same denominator, so just subtract the top 2 numbers.

 

8/8 or 1 cup left over