word problems involving fractions

Question

one brother ate 1/2 of a pizza pie.The second brother ate 3/4 of what was left.what part of the pizza is left for the third brother

Answer 1

Our problem looks like this:

1/1 - 1/2 - 1/2(3/4) = ?

 

We start by multiplying out that furthest segment, and then we need to find a common denominator:

1/1 - 1/2 - 3/8 = ?

8 is the lowest common denominator:

8/8 - 4/8 - 3/8 = ?

8/8 - 7/8 = 1/8

 

If you want a story visualization, think of this: the pizza is cut into 8 slices. The first brother eats 4 of them, leaving 4 left.

of the 4 slices left, the second brother eats 3 of those, and that leaves only 1 slice left.