Robin rides for 3 1⁄2 miles round-trip to get to and from school. How many miles would Robin ride in 5 days?

Question

Please help, tell me how to use a tape diagram!

Answer 1

Hi, there! This question can be a little confusing and we need to use a tape diagram so lets break it into peices.

First, lets break down the wording of the question. It tells us Robin travels to and from school round trip in

3 1/2 miles. Round trip means both ways so we know we don't need to calculate their trip back from school.

Now, we know that every day she travels 3 1/2 miles. She needs to do this for 5 days so we need to do some multiplication or we can use that tape diagram for visualization.

Now this is a little difficult using the computer but visualize every dash is the 3 1/2 miles she rides to school. As well as one block in our tape diagram.

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______

or

3 1/2 + 3 1/2+ 3 1/2 +3 1/2 +3 1/2

She will make the trip to and from school 5 times. Now we just need to add it up

3

3

3

3

+ 3

15

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

+ 1/2

2 1/2

15+ 2 1/2= 17 1/2

Robin will travel 17 1/2 miles in 5 days.