how many times does she need to fill up her measuring spoon

Question

Cecelia is making a recipe that calls for 3/4 a teaspoon of nutmeg. Her only measuring spoon hold 1/8 teaspoon. How many times will she need to fill her measuring spoon to get enough nutmeg for the recipe?

Answer 1

When figuring out how many times she needs to fill her measuring spoon, we can solve this problem a few different ways.

1) Using proportions

we can set up an equation of proportions which would be 3/4 = 1x/8

This would be our proportion since we are figuring out how many times we need to add 1/8 of a teaspoon. We can cross multiply (using what many teachers call "the butterfly method") to get a new equation:

24 = 4x

We can divide both sides by 4 to get x = 6.

Therefore, Cecelia will have to fill up her measuring spoon 6 times.

2) Using Least Common Multiples

We can use the concept of least common multiples to figure out how many times she needs to fill up her measuring spoon. The least common multiple of 4 and 8 is 8.

What do we multiply 4 by to get 8?

2!

Therefore, we can multiply this fraction (3/4) by 2/2 to get 6/8, meaning Cecelia would need to fill up her spoon 6 times since 6/8 is the same as 3/4.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you still have questions and I am happy to explain it in a different way!