Question

Anne and Nancy are the two tallest basketball players on their high school team. Anne is 67 3/5 inches talk and Nancy is 71 1/2 inches tall. How many inches taller is Nancy than Anne ?

Answer 1

`3 (9)/(10)`

Explanation:

First, subtract the whole numbers. This will make everything easier.

71 - 67 = 4

Now, get common denominators for the fractions.

Both fractions can be multiplied so the denominator is 10. Multiply 3/5 by 2 and 1/2 by 5.

`(3)/(5) * 2 = (6)/(10)`

`(1)/(2) * 5 = (5)/(10)`

Now, subtract.

`(5)/(10) - (6)/(10) = - (1)/(10)`

You end up with:

`4 ( - (1)/(10) )`

Of course, you can't have a negative fraction in a mixed number, so take 1 out of 4 to subtract the fraction.

`3( (10)/(10) - (1)/(10) )`

You get:

`3 (9)/(10)`