A certain plant grows 1 2/5 inches every week. How long will it take the plant to grow 4 4/5?

Question

A certain plant grows 1 2/5 inches every week. How long will it take the plant to grow 4 4/5 inches?

Answer 1

To determine how long it will take the plant to grow 4 4/5 inches, you would divide 4 4/5 by 1 2/5 inches.

First covert both mixed numbers to improper fractions: 4 4/5 = 24/5 and 1 2/5 = 7/5

Then divide 24/5 by 7/5. Recall that diving by a fraction requires you to multiply by the reciprocal of the divisor (here that is 7/5)

24/5 divided by 7/5 becomes 24/5 * 5/7 = 120/35 = 3 3/7 weeks

It will take 3 and 3/7 weeks (approximately 3.4 weeks).