Question

Luis made some trail mix .He mixed 4 2/3 cups of popcorn ,1 1/4 cups of peanuts ,1 1/3 cups of raisins ,and 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds.He gave 5 of his friends an equal amount of trail mix each.How much did each friend get?

Answer 1

so you have to add all the fractions together and then divide by five. When dealing with mixed fractions i like to add the whole numbers first, then add the fractions:
4 2/3, 1 1/4, 1 1/3, 3/4
the whole numbers: 4 + 1 + 1 = 6
then we are left with 2/3, 1/4, 1/3, 3/4
add the ones with common denominators together to make it easiest: 2/3 + 1/3 = 3/3 = 1 (another whole number! add it to 6 to get 7)
now we are left with 1/4 + 3/4 = 4/4 = 1 (another whole number! add it to 7 to get 8)
Now we know there are 8 cups of trail mix all together divide it by 5 friends and you get 8/5. 5 goes into 8 once with three left over so you get 1 3/5 cups per friend.