Debby was packing up some of her old stuff in a box. A box can hold nine pounds, but she only filled it up eight-tenths full. How much weight was in the box

Answer 1

If she had only put in half of what the box could hold, how much would the box weigh? 4 and a half, right (half of 9). To figure out how much the box weighs, take the fraction 1/2 and multiply it by the total 9.

In this problem, the fraction is 8/10 so multiply 8/10 by 9. To multiply fractions, turn the 9 into a fraction by putting it over 1 (9/1) then multiply 8/10 x 9/1 and multiply straight across (8 x 9 on the top and 10 x 1 on the bottom) to get 72/10. Now reduce the fraction results by dividing top and bottom by 2 to get 36/5. You can turn this into a mixed number by dividing the 5 into the 36 to get 7 with remainder 1 meaning there is 7 1/5 pounds in the box. A decimal answer would be 7.2 pounds