Question

The gas tank in Rebecca’s old car held 14 1/5 gallons.The gas tank in Rebecca’s new car holds 18 1/2 gallons.How many more gallons will the tank hole in Rebeccas new car than her old car?

A) 3 1/5 gallons
B) 4 3/10 gallons
C) 4 1/3 gallons
D) 4 1/5 gallons

Answer 1

Rebecca's new car can hold 4 3/10 gallons more than her old car. We calculate this by converting mixed numbers to improper fractions, finding a common denominator, subtracting the old capacity from the new, and converting back to a mixed number.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how many more gallons the tank in Rebecca's new car holds compared to her old car, we simply subtract the capacity of the old car's gas tank from the new car's gas tank.

Rebecca's old car held 14 1/5 gallons and her new car holds 18 1/2 gallons. To subtract these two amounts, we first convert the mixed numbers to improper fractions.

• 14 1/5 becomes 71/5.
• 18 1/2 becomes 37/2.

Next, we find a common denominator to subtract the fractions, which in this case is 10.

• 71/5 becomes 142/10.
• 37/2 becomes 185/10.

Now we subtract the old tank capacity from the new tank capacity:

• 185/10 - 142/10 = 43/10.

Converting the improper fraction back to a mixed number, we get 4 3/10 gallons. Therefore, Rebecca's new car can hold 4 3/10 gallons more than her old car.

The correct answer is B) 4 3/10 gallons.