Question

In Martha's class 5/8 of the students walk to school and 1/8 of the students ride the bus. Martha added the fractions and found the sum was 1/8 .Which statement best describes the sum 1/8?

Answer 1

Your answer would be B. This is because you are trying to add to a WHOLE> and 1/8 is what you have left. So 1/2 +1/2=1 is correct because you are adding to a whole number.

Answer 2

The answer would be C. First, poor Martha added the fractions wrong. The sum should be 6/8. So her logic is the following:

1/8 + 5/8 = 1/8

This is not reasonable since 1) the sum is incorrect, and 2) according to the identity rule for addition, if you add 0 to a number, you get that number. (ie, A + 0 = A). She ended up with the same number (1/8) after adding a number that is not 0 (5/8).