Question

Mary's tube of red paint is five sevenths full and her blue paint is four sevenths full. How much red and blue paint does Mary have in total? Use the benchmark fraction one half, 1, and 0 to help you estimate each answer before you solve it.

Answer 1

We know that:

Mary has 5/7 of the red paint tube

And she also has 4/7 of the blue paint tube.

How much paint does she have in total?

Well, we only need to add these fractions.

5/7 + 4/7 = 9/7

We can rewrite the 9 as 7 + 2, then we get:

9/7 = (7 + 2)/7 = 7/7 + 2/7 = 1 + 2/7

This means that, in total, she has a complete tube and two sevents of other.