Question

Jake’s measures the height of a tree to be 74 3/8
inches. Six months later, he measures the height
again. He says the tree has 2 3/4 inches.
How tall is the tree?

Answer 1

I'm assuming the question is asking how tall the tree is if it has grown 2 3/4 inches.

The initial height of the tree is 74 3/8 inches and it grows 2 3/4 inches after six months. We can add these two numbers together to calculate the height of the tree now.

$74\frac{3}{8} + 2\frac{3}{4}$

Since these are both mixed numbers, we must find a common denominator to add our fractions. 8 is the lowest common denominator for 4 and 8. So:

$74\frac{3}{8} + 2\frac{6}{8}$

We can now add our whole numbers up (74 + 2) and add the numerators of the fractions together to get a single fraction ($\frac{3}{8} + \frac{6}{8}$).

74 + 2 = 76

$\frac{3}{8} + \frac{6}{8} = \frac{9}{8}$

Putting these two together, we get $76 \frac{9}{8}$, which is equal to $77\frac{1}{8}$.

We can also turn this answer into an improper fraction. This is done by multiplying the whole number by the denominator and adding the numerator. So in this case:

77 x 8 = 616

616 + 1 = 617

The denominator stays the same, so our answer as an improper fraction would be $\frac{617}{8}$.

So the tree is $77\frac{1}{8}$ inches tall, or $\frac{617}{8}$ inches tall.