Question

Bill ate 1/4 pound of trail mix on his first break during a hiking trip. On his second break, he ate 1/6 pound. How many pounds of trail mix did he eat during both breaks?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

We can write that on his two breaks Bill at:

`(1/4 + 1/6)"lb"` of trail mix.

We now need to put the two fractions over a common denominator in order to add the fractions. The LCD for these two fractions is `12`. We need to multiply each fraction by the appropriate form of `1` to ensure each fraction has a denominator of `12`:

`([3/3 xx 1/4] + [2/2 xx 1/6])"lb" =>`

`([(3 xx 1)/(3 xx 4)] + [(2 xx 1)/(2 xx 6)])"lb" =>`

`(3/12 + 2/12)"lb" =>`

`(3 + 2)/12"lb" =>`

`5/12"lb"`

Bill ate `5/15"lb"` of trail mix on the two breaks.