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Chris practiced the piano for 3/4 of an hour on Monday, 1/2 of an hour on Tuesday, 1 hour on Wednesday, 1/4 of an hour on Thursday, and 1/3 of an hour on Friday. How many total hours did Chris practice?

1 Answer

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Chris practiced a total of 2 5/6 hours.

To add fractions, we need to find and convert all the number's denominators GCF, However; there is a shortcut to this problem.

Since Chris practiced 1 hour on Wednesday, we can put that to the side.

If you added the time Chris practiced on Monday and Thursday, you would get the equation:
3/4 + 1/4 = ? If you were to solve this problem, you would get the answer:
4/4 which would ultimately simplify into
1 Now put that hour to the side along with the hour on Wednesday.

You are now left with 1/2 an hour on Tuesday and 1/3 of an hour on Friday. We need to find the GCF of the number's denominators. The denominators would be 2 and 3 so we need to find the GCF of those numbers. The factors of two are: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... and the factors of 3 are 3, 6, 9, 12... Among those factors, the common factor is 6. So we need the fractions 1/2 and 1/3 to have the denominator 6. To do this, we need to find out what number multiplied by the denominator gets you six. If you set up an equation, you would get:
2*x=6 for 2 and
3*x=6 for 3. Solve the first equation and you would get x=3. Solve the second equation and you would get x=2. Now, multiply the whole fraction with "x", according to its equation. You would get the new equation:
(1)/(2) * 3/3 = ? for 1/2 and
(1)/(3) * 2/2 = ? You would get the fractions:
3/6 and
2/6 Do not simplify yet. You must add them up then simplify. If you created a equation, you would get
(3)/(6) + (2)/(6) and you would get the answer:
(5)/(6) of an hour.

Now add all the hours together.
First, you add the hour from Wednesday
1+
Then you add the hour combined from Monday and Thursday
1 + 1 +
Last, you add the time combined from Tuesday and Friday
1+1+ (5)/(6)
If you added up all the time, you would get
2 (5)/(6) of an hour and that is your answer.
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