What is the correct way to solve this word problem, subtraction or multiplication. I'm confused

Question

John ran 6 3/4 miles on Friday afternoon. His daughter Megan ran 3/4 of the distance with her father. How far did Megan run?

Answer 1

Whenever you see "a fraction of something", that's an indication that you need to multiply. We do the same with whole numbers, too. Consider what "one classroom of 30 people" means. It means we have 1 × 30 people in total. When the number of classrooms changes, the number we multiply by changes along with it. Four classrooms of 30 people is 4 × 30 = 120 people in total.

Now consider what "two-thirds of a classroom of 30" means. The rules for fraction multiplication are designed for just this scenario! We represent two-thirds of a classroom of 30 by multiplying two-thirds by 30, which is 2/3 × 30 = 20. So 2/3 of a classroom of 30 people is 20 people in total.

The answer to your question is clear when you look at what you're asked to find. You're asked to find "3/4 of the distance", where the distance is the total distance Megan's father ran, which is 6 3/4 miles. To find 3/4 of 6 3/4 miles, we multiply:

(3/4) × (6 3/4 miles) = 81/16 miles = 5 1/16 miles

Answer 2

Hello Jemmie! Please see the answer to your question below:

John ran 6 3/4 miles, Megan ran 3/4 of that distance. Because its 3/4 of the distance, you need to multiply the two numbers. If it was 3/4 miles less, then you would subtract.

So we multiply 6 3/4 and 3/4. To do this by hand, you will want to change 6 3/4 from a mixed number to a fraction. That results in 27/4. So (27/4)*(3/4) = 81/16.

Changing 81/16 back to a mixed number results in 5 1/16.

So the final answer is that Megan ran 5 1/16 miles