Question

Marcella bought 12/14 yards of ribbon. She uses 2 1/2 yards of ribbon for gift packages and 3 2/3 yards to tie balloons.

How many yards of ribbon does Marcella have left?

Enter your answer as a mixed number in simplest form by filling in the boxes.

Answer 1

`6(1)/(12)\ yd`

Explanation:

The correct question is

Marcella bought 12 1/4 yards of ribbon. She uses 2 1/2 yards of ribbon for gift packages and 3 2/3 yards to tie balloons.

How many yards of ribbon does Marcella have left?

we know that

To find out how many yards of ribbon Marcella has left, add up the yards of ribbon used for the gift packages plus the yards of ribbon used to tie the balloons. and subtract this result from the total yards of ribbon bought by Marcella

so

`12(1)/(4)-(2(1)/(2)+3(2)/(3))`

but first convert mixed number to an improper fractions

`12(1)/(4)=(12*4+1)/(4)=(49)/(4)`

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

`3(2)/(3)=(3*3+2)/(3)=(11)/(3)`

substitute in the expression above

`(49)/(4)-((5)/(2)+(11)/(3))`

`(49)/(4)-((5*3+2*11)/(6))`

`(49)/(4)-((37)/(6))`

`(3*49-37*2)/(12)`

`(73)/(12)\ yd`

Convert to mixed number

`(73)/(12)\ yd=(72)/(12)+(1)/(12)=6(1)/(12)\ yd`