Question

A chef used one- third of a bag of potatoes for a meal. If the potatoes fed 7 people, what fraction of the bag did each person get?

Answer 1

Answer: 1/21 of the bag

Explanation:

If only one person eats the meal they are consuming 1/3 of a bag of potatoes. However if more than one person is eating the potatoes we need to multiply 1/3 by the reciprocal of how many people are eating.

For example:

2 people 1/3*1/2=1/6

3 people 1/3*1/3=1/9

So then we apply this principle for seven people.

7 people 1/3*1/7=1/21

We can check our answer by working backwards

1/21*7=7/21=1/3

So each person got 1/21 of the bag.