# A bakery makes 15 pies. They sell pieces that are 1/4 of the pie. How many pieces can they sell from 15 pies? How do you write an expression and solve?

May 28, 2018

There are 15 pies (let $x$ be 15)

Let y be the number of pieces they can sell in total

Each pie can be sold in 4 pieces: $15 \times 4$

Therefore, $x \times 4 = y$

$15 \times 4 = y$

$y = 60$

May 28, 2018

See a solution process below:

#### Explanation:

Let's call the number of pieces we are looking for: $p$

We can then write and solve this equation using ratios:

$\left(4 \text{pieces")/(1"pie") = p/(15"pie}\right)$

$\textcolor{red}{\text{pie") * (4"pieces")/(1"pie") = color(red)("pie") * p/(15"pie}}$

cancel(color(red)("pie")) * (4"pieces")/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("pie")))) = cancel(color(red)("pie")) * p/(15color(red)(cancel(color(black)("pie"))))

$\frac{4 \text{pieces}}{1} = \frac{p}{15}$

$\left(4 \text{pieces}\right) = \frac{p}{15}$

$\textcolor{red}{15} \cdot \left(4 \text{pieces}\right) = \textcolor{red}{15} \cdot \frac{p}{15}$

$60 \text{pieces} = \cancel{\textcolor{red}{15}} \cdot \frac{p}{\textcolor{red}{\cancel{\textcolor{b l a c k}{15}}}}$

$60 \text{pieces} = p$

15 pies would produce 60 pieces to sell.