How would you solve this word problem involving fractions?
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Question by itsmuhshellduh: How would you solve this word problem involving fractions?
If one pound of grain can fee 5 chickens or 2 pigs, then 10 pounds of grain can feed 20 chickens and how many pigs?
I’ve been stuck on this stupid fraction problem and I’ve been told the answer is NOT 8… I don’t know how to solve it, so if you can please help me set it up and guide me through the steps I’d be very grateful. Thanks…
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One Response to How would you solve this word problem involving fractions?
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If one pound of grain can feed 5 chicken, than 1/5 pound can feed one chicken. If one pound can feed 2 pigs, than 1 pig needs 1/2 pound.
Now you have 10 pounds of grain and 20 chicken. When you know that one chicken needs 1/5 pound, you also know how much 20 chicken need: 20 * 1/5 = 4. So you have 6 pound left. That means when you multiply the number of pigs with 1/2, you will get 6:
Number of pigs * 1/2 = 6
To get the number of pigs, you have to divide both sides by 1/2.
Number of pigs = 12
Hope that helped 🙂
Kathi
December 19, 2012 at 11:06 pm