Question

Bernard made some chili with 1/2 of a can of black beans and 1/8 of a can of pinto beans. How many cans of beans did Bernard use in all? Simplify your answer and write it as a fraction or as a whole or mixed number.

Answer 1

Bernard used a total of 5/8 of a can of beans for his chili, by adding 1/2 can of black beans and 1/8 can of pinto beans after converting them to have a common denominator.

Step-by-step explanation:

Bernard made some chili using 1/2 of a can of black beans and 1/8 of a can of pinto beans. To find out how many cans of beans Bernard used in all, we simply add these fractions together. Since the denominators are different, we need to find a common denominator to add them correctly. The smallest common denominator for 2 and 8 is 8.

So, we convert 1/2 to a fraction with 8 as the denominator. Multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 4 to get 4/8. Now we can add the two fractions: 4/8 (black beans) + 1/8 (pinto beans) = 5/8.

Therefore, Bernard used 5/8 of a can of beans in total to make his chili.