11 Plus Exams Forum

Pack 2, Paper 5, Q6:
Karen, Amrit and Sam are going to share two pizzas equally between them. What fraction of a whole pizza should each of them have?
a) 1/2
b) 3/4
c) 1/4
d) 1/3
e) 2/3

The answer is apparently D, but how is that possible? If each gets 1/3 of two wholes, then that's equivalent of each getting 2/3 of a single whole. The answers should be E, no?

mumili wrote:Pack 2, Paper 5, Q6:
Karen, Amrit and Sam are going to share two pizzas equally between them. What fraction of a whole pizza should each of them have?
a) 1/2
b) 3/4
c) 1/4
d) 1/3
e) 2/3

The answer is apparently D, but how is that possible? If each gets 1/3 of two wholes, then that's equivalent of each getting 2/3 of a single whole. The answers should be E, no?

I think the answer is D - if the question read " what fraction of the TWO pizzas would they have then it could be E . You can't share a whole pizza fairly between 3 and get 1/3 each

I agree with mumili, and would have thought the answer was 2/3 each.

2 pizzas divided by 3 people = 2 / 3

You don't even HAVE to give each person 1/3 of each pizza.
Karen could get 2/3 of the first pizza, Amrit could get 2/3 of the second pizza and Sam could get the 2 remaining pieces and it would still be equally divided.

Surferfish wrote:I agree with mumili, and would have thought the answer was 2/3 each.

2 pizzas divided by 3 people = 2 / 3

You don't even HAVE to give each person 1/3 of each pizza.
Karen could get 2/3 of the first pizza, Amrit could get 2/3 of the second pizza and Sam could get the 2 remaining pieces and it would still be equally divided.

DS went with E, and seeing the answer as D he started to justify it, saying that indeed each pizza should be divided into three slices, and each should get a slice from each pizza etc.
I told him that his initial reasoning was OK and that the question was wrong.

I don't think it is a very well worded question - suspect they meant it to be a 1/3 of each pizza

I would say they get a 1/3 of a whole pizza each.

This sort of ‘trap’ in the question is very common in SATs

It’s 1/3 because two pizzas split equally is 6 pieces and each gets 2/6 so that is 1/3. If of one whole pizza it’s still 1/3? This is what my ds thinks.

I remember last year this question was asked and Guess55 said it was poor wording and the answer is 2/3.

yoyo123 wrote:I would say they get a 1/3 of a whole pizza each.

This sort of ‘trap’ in the question is very common in SATs

So that means that regardless of the number of pizzas, the answer would always be a third? That doesn't make sense.

It's worded in such a way that it is not clear.

But there are two pizzas and each pizza is going to be shared equally between the three of them.

So Pizza 1 is shared equally (into, for arguments sake, three slices) so they get 1/3rd each.

Pizza 2 is shared equally (into, for arguments sake, three slices) so they get 1/3rd each.

Then the question asks:
"What fraction of a whole pizza should each of them have?"

So the answer is they should have 1/3rd of a whole pizza.....although they will actually end up with 2 x 1/3rds as they have one slice (fraction) from each pizza.

It is a maths question with verbal reasoning involved...