Question

Kelly filled a bucket with 12/3 of a gallon of water. A few minutes later, she realized only 2/3 of a gallon of water remained. How much water had leaked out of the bucket?

Answer 1

Kelly originally filled the bucket with 4 gallons of water, and after leakage, 2/3 of a gallon remained. The amount of water that had leaked out is therefore 10/3 gallons, or equivalently, 3 1/3 gallons.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks how much water had leaked out of Kelly's bucket if she originally filled it with 12/3 gallons of water and later only 2/3 of a gallon remained. To solve this, we'll first simplify the fraction representing the original amount of water in the bucket, then subtract the remaining water from the original amount.

To simplify 12/3, divide 12 by 3, which equals 4. So, Kelly started with 4 gallons of water. Next, we'll subtract the amount of water left in the bucket, which is 2/3 of a gallon, from the 4 gallons she began with:

• 4 gallons - (2/3) gallons

To subtract these amounts, we need to have a common denominator. Since 4 is a whole number, we can convert it to 4 × 3/3 to get 12/3.

• (12/3) gallons - (2/3) gallons = (12/3 - 2/3) gallons
• (10/3) gallons

So, 10/3 gallons of water had leaked out, which is the same as 3 1/3 gallons.