Question

Wendy has 10 ½ pounds of potato salad. She wants to divide the potato salad into containers, each of which holds 1 ¼ pounds. How many containers does she need? Show your work and answer in a complete sentence.

Answer 1

Answer:

9 containers

Step-by-step explanation:

Since Wendy wants to divide the 10 $\frac{1}{2}$ pounds of the potato salad into 1 $\frac{1}{4}$ pounds for each container, You just divide 10 $\frac{1}{2}$ by 1 $\frac{1}{4}$ using the following method:

Convert 10 $\frac{1}{2}$ into an improper fraction:

$\frac{21}{2}$

Convert 1 $\frac{1}{4}$ into an improper fraction:

$\frac{5}{4}$

Then finally divide $\frac{21}{2}$ by  $\frac{5}{4}$ :

$\frac{21}{2}$ ÷ $\frac{5}{4}$

This is the same as $\frac{21}{2}$ times the reciprocal of $\frac{5}{4}$:

$\frac{21}{2}$ × $\frac{4}{5}$ = $\frac{42}{5}$ = 8.4

Since we cannot have 8.4 containers, we round it up to 9 containers, because for 8 containers, there will still be some pounds of potato salad left.