Hi Lee from Abingdon, MD...hope you had a great day at school.
Terrific...a fractions problem and multiplication to boot...every student's favorite math problem...Right?! NOT!!!
Okay...this is a great problem...and the thing you need to remember...Which I emphasize to my students is that the answer NEEDS to be a fraction...NOT a decimal. The reason for that is it is easy to use a calculator to get this answer. There are 2 techniques this problem is expecting you to be capable of understanding and calculating, not using a calculator. I'm not going to give you the answer...that would be too easy as well, however I'm going to give you hints to work to solve it yourself. In doing so, then you will be a pro and others will be coming to you to answer these kind of problems.
Okay...let's start off with what we know. The puppy [hope its a cute puppy] weighs 11¼ pounds [ALSO make sure you include units in your answer...ALWAYS include the units. I take off points from my student's grade when UNITS aren't included. They are part of the solution] After 16 weeks, the puppy weighs 1-2/3 more.
Alright...I will get you started and you will need to multiply [HINT] the 2 fractions. However, the fractions are 'mixed fractions', so we need to change the fractions to 'improper fractions'...RIGHT?!
Another [HINT]...I'll change the 1-2/3 fraction to an improper fraction.
which will be 5/3...Right?!
Do you know how that was done?
Another [HINT] we multiply the one times 3 then add 2, which makes 1-2/3 equivalent to 5/3
[HINT]...now do the same for 11¼ to an improper fraction, multiply the 5/3...then change the improper fraction back into a mixed fraction.
Try to solve this on you own. If you still have problems, contact me on Wyzant.
