a bucket holds 21/2 gallons of water. Ryan fills it 31/4 times with the water from a barrel. How much water was in the barrel

Question

i dont get it

Answer 1

So the bucket holds 2 1/2 gallons, and he filled that bucket up 3 1/4 times. Times. We're looking at multiplication here:

2 ¹/₂ * 3 ¹/₄

When we have mixed numbers like this, I usually find it helpful to convert:

2 * 2 + 1 = 5

3 * 4 + 1 = 13

That gives us:

⁵/₂ * ¹³/₄

You can multiply that out and then convert back to a mixed number.

Answer 2

2 1/2 = 5/2

 

3 1/4 = 13/4

 

(5/2)(13/4) = 65/8 = 8 1/8 gallons