Question

Half of Ramon's class have pets. A quarter of the students who have pets own fish. What fraction of the whole class own fish?

A) 1/8
B) 1/6
C) 1/4
D) 1/3
E) 1/2

*Please only answer if you are 100% sure of your answer. A quick response would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.*

Answer 1

Answer: A) 1/8

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Imagine you have a circular cake that hasn't been cut up yet. If you cut it in half, you have 2 equal pieces. Then if you cut each half into 4 pieces, you'll have 4*2 = 8 pieces total. So that's where the 1/8 comes from.

To be more technical, its the result of multiplying 1/2 and 1/4
(1/2)*(1/4) = (1*1)/(2*4) = 1/8

Here's another more concrete example:
Let's say there are 16 people in the class
Half of them have pets so 8 of them have pets (half of 16 is 8)
Of those 8 people, a quarter have fish. So 2 people have fish (one quarter of 8 is 2).
Comparing 2 to 16 is 2/16 = 1/8. So 1/8 of the class has fish