Question

A pump moves 42 gallons in seven minutes. what is the unit rate?

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

6 gallons per minute.

Step-by-step explanation:

In order to have a unit rate, we must have a rate with a denominator of 1. Our rate is 42/7. To make this a unit rate, we need to divide the denominator by 7. What we do to the denominator, we must also do to the numerator; this means we have (42÷7)/(7÷7) = 6/1. This is a rate of 6 gallons per minute.

Answer 2

You need to divide both numbers by 7 because you currently know how many gallons are pumped in 7 minutes, and we want to find out how much is pumped in one minute.

42 ÷ 7 = 6.
7 ÷ 7 = 1.

So it pumps 6 gallons per minute.