Final answer:
The farmer sowed 6 1/8 buckets of seeds during the morning. This result is obtained by subtracting the number of buckets left at the end (6 1/2) from the initial number of buckets (12 5/8), both whole numbers and fractions separately.
Step-by-step explanation:
The topic of the question is subtraction of mixed numbers, which can be broken down into separate subtractions of whole numbers and fractions. To answer the question 'How many buckets of seeds did the farmer sow?, we need to subtract the number of seed buckets the farmer has left (6 1/2 buckets) from the initial amount of seed buckets she had (12 5/8 buckets). First, subtract the whole numbers: 12 - 6 = 6. Then, subtract the fractions: 5/8 - 1/2 = 5/8 - 4/8 = 1/8. Combine the results: 6 (from the whole number subtraction) and 1/8 (from the fraction subtraction) to get 6 1/8 buckets. That means the farmer sowed 6 1/8 buckets (option a).
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