Question

Jenn is preparing brown rice. She needs 1 1 2 cups of brown rice and 2 cups of water. Jenn has only a 1 8 -cup measuring cup. How many 1 8 -cups each of rice and water will Jenn use to prepare the rice?

Answer 1

She will need 12 1/8 cups of brown rice and 16 1/8 cups of water.

Explanation:

You will want to convert 1 1/2 cups into an improper fraction, as well as 2 cups.

1 1/2 = 3/2

2 = 2/1

Now that you have done that you will then have to find a common denominator. You will need to list the multiples for 8 and lowest common factor so you don't have to simplify at the end.

The multiples of 8: 1, 2, 4, and 8

As shown above 2 is a multiple of 8. Therefore you will need to multiply the denominator by 4. This is because 2 x 4 equals 8. So now the denominator is 8. You will now need to multiply the numerator by 4 because that is what you multiplied the bottom by. It will be 3 x 4, and will therefore equal 12. The final improper fraction will be 12/8. The numerator then becomes the answer because that is the amount of 1/8 cups that you will need.

You then repeat this with 2/1. However you will need to multiply the denominator by a different number because it is 1. Looking at the multiples of 8 above, you will multiply the 1 by 8, therefore giving you 8 as the denominator. You will then multiply the numerator by 8 as well. This will result in an answer of 16. You will then have a 16/8. You will need 16 1/8 cups of water.