Mrs. Washer filled the gas tank of her car. She used 2/3 of a tank driving to the beach. She used another 1/6 of the tank driving to her hotel. How much gasoline is left in the tank

Answer 1

The problem does not give an actual amount of gasoline to subtract from. It only gives a whole tank. So the original number to work with is 1. Since she uses 2/3 of a tank to drive to the beach, we subtract 2/3 from 1.

1 must be converted to a fraction for the subtraction problem with 3 as the denominator.

3/3 - 2/3 = 1/3

She uses another 1/6 of a tank to go home. Subtract this from 1/3 to see what is left.

1/3 - 1/6 (must have a common denominator to subtract, so convert 1/3 to 2/6)

2/6 - 1/6 = 1/6.

She is left with 1/6 of a tank of gas by the time she gets home.