Question

Nicole was helping to paint a wall at a park near her house as part of a community service project. She had painted half of the wall yellow when the park director walked by and said, “This wall is supposed to be painted red!” Nicole immediately started painting over the yellow portion of the wall. By the end of the day, she had repainted 56 of the yellow portion red. What fraction of the entire wall is painted red at the end of the day?

Answer 1

If Nicole had painted half of the wall yellow, then the other half was not painted yet. When the park director told her to paint the wall red, she painted over half of the wall, which means she painted half of the unpainted portion of the wall. Therefore, at the end of the day, the entire wall has 1/2 + 1/2 - 56/(2 x 2) = 3/4 of it painted red.

So the fraction of the entire wall that is painted red at the end of the day is 3/4.