Victoria is cutting a long pipe that is 7 feet long into pieces that are #2 1/2# feet long. How many complete pieces of that length can she make?

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Answer 1 · 2017-04-02T16:13:39

2

One way of solving the problem is to convert 2 1/2 to a decimal

# 1/2 = .5# Now divide 7 by 2.5

# 7/2.5 = 2.8 #

.8 is not a compete piece so the answer is 2 complete pieces.

Another way is to divide 7 by 2 1/2 using complex fractions.

# 2 1/2 = 5/2#

#( 7/1) /(5/2) # Multiply both the top and the bottom by #2/5#

#{(7/1) xx (2/5)}/{ (5/2) xx (2/5)}# The denominator becomes 1 leaving

# (7/1) xx ( 2/5) = 14/5# Now divide by 5

# 14/5 = 2 4/5 # Again there are only two wholes.