Question

Aldo made a shirt using 1/5 meters of yellow fabric and 2/3 meters of red fabric. How many meters of fabric did he use in all? Write your answer as a fraction in simplest form.

Answer 1

`(13)/(15)` m of fabric

Explanation:

To solve this problem, we add the meters of yellow fabric Aldo used with the meters of red fabric he used.

`(1)/(5)+(2)/(3)`

However, we have to find a common denominator between the two fractions first in order to add them together. We can do this by multiplying the numerator and denominator in 1/5 by 3, and then multiplying the numerator and denominator in 2/3 by 5.

Essentially, we're multiplying the values in each fraction by the other fraction's denominator.

`(1)/(5)` ⇒ x3 ⇒
`(3)/(15)`

`(2)/(3)` ⇒ x5 ⇒
`(10)/(15)`

Now, we add the two fractions.

`(3)/(15) + (10)/(15)\\=(13)/(15)`

I hope this helps!