Is the answer book wrong?

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SleepyHead
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Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Is the answer book wrong?

Post by SleepyHead »

Alia ate 1/3 of a pizza for lunch. Later she ate 2/5 of the remaining pizza as a snack. How much of the pizza did she eat altogether?

A. 3/8
B. 3/5
C. 11/15
D. 4/5
E. 3/15

DC made the answer 3/5 (B)

Answer sheet says C 11/15, but I agree with DC!

Can anyone explain why it's C please?

TIA
Tinkers
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by Tinkers »

Answer C is correct.

I think you’ve missed that she are 2/5 of the remaining pizza. So you need to work out what 2/5 of 2/3 is, to work out how much is eaten then work out how much is left.
SleepyHead
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Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by SleepyHead »

These are our steps:

Ate 1/3 = 5/15

Ate 2/5 of remaining, so 2/5 x 2/3 = 4/15

Altogether ate 5/15 + 4/15 = 9/15 = 3/5

Am I missing something :?:
mad?
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by mad? »

Yes

1/3 = 5 /15 so she has already eaten 5/15

Remaining is 10/15

2/5 of this is 6/15 (x both x 3)

so 5/15 + 6/15 = 11/15
mad?
solimum
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by solimum »

I think Sleepyhead is correct

Imagine the pizza had been precut into 15 slices

First she eats 1/3 of them ie 5 slices - there are now 10 slices left

Then she eats 2/5 of the 10 slices ie 4 slices (4/10 and 2/5 are equivalent fractions)

She's eaten 9 altogether which is 9/15 or 3/5 of the original pizza

You can see how they choose the "wrong" answers too to catch out the common mistakes

A: from incorrectly adding 1/3 + 2/5 (adding tops & bottoms of the fractions)
C: This would be correct if adding 1/3 +2/5 properly as you would convert both to 15ths 5/15 + 6/15, so without the words "of the remaining pizza"
D: ? not sure
E: adding 1+2 and multiplying the denominators together
mad?
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by mad? »

Thanks Solimum. So glad I don't have to to this any more!
mad?
solimum
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by solimum »

One concept which is difficult to grasp with fractions is that the innocuous word "of" means "multiply"

so 2/5 OF 2/3 means 2/5 x 2/3 and multiplying fractions is the "easy" one, (2x2)/(5x3)

I think where you went astray mad is
Remaining is 10/15

2/5 of this is 6/15 (x both x 3)
What you've done there is express 2/5 as its equivalent fraction 6/15 by multiplying top & bottom by 3

But the 15ths here are different from the original 15ths: it's as if you divided the 2/3 of the original pizza into 15 new slices and had 6 of those - those are smaller than the imaginary 15 slices of the original pizza.

It would be much easier to explain with real pizza.....
mad?
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by mad? »

Haha or less wine :wink:
mad?
SleepyHead
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Re: Is the answer book wrong?

Post by SleepyHead »

Thanks all :)
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