One-fourth of a race is one-eight of a mile long. How long is the race?

Answer 1

Hello!

The word problem can be broken down into this equation.

1/4(Race) = 1/8(Mile) --> reworded as "A quarter of the race is complete when you run 1/8 mile

So now we can treat this like any other algebra equation. We are trying to find out how long the Race is. We should isolate Race on one end of the equation so we can see how long the race is in miles.

Multiply both sides by 4 to isolate Race: 4* 1/4(Race) = 4* 1/8 (Mile)

Simplify: Race = 1/2 Mile

The Race is 1/2 Mile long