Fractions on the ACT

Question

Maria ordered a pizza. She ate only 2/9 of it and gave the remaining pizza to her 3 brothers. What fraction of the whole pizza will each of Maria’s brothers receive, if they share the remaining pizza equally?

A. 7/9

B. 3/7

C. 1/3

D. 7/27

E. 2/27

Answer 1

Many students are afraid of fractions, but they're simply a ratio of 2 whole numbers (which aren't that scary). You can do this!

If Maria ate 2/9 of the pizza, that means she DIDN'T eat 7/9 of the pizza. So far so good? Ok, then you just need to find out what is 1/3 of 7/9, because the three brothers are dividing the leftover pizza equally, right? Hint - "of" usually means multiply. And remember multiplying fractions is lovely - you simply multiply the numerators together, then multiply the denominators together (no common denominator mumbo jumbo). So...

1/3 * 7/9 = 7/27. Boom!

Answer 2