Question

Denise added 2/3

of a bag of fertilizer to her yard one morning and 1/4
of the bag in the afternoon. Her neighbor, Thomas, added 5/8
of a bag of fertilizer to his yard on the same day. Denise and Thomas used bags of equal size.

How much more fertilizer did Denise use than Thomas?

Answer 1

Denise used 3.5/12 or approximately 0.292 of a bag more fertilizer than Thomas after converting both their portions to twelfths for easy subtraction.

Step-by-step explanation:

Denise added 2/3 of a bag of fertilizer in the morning and 1/4 in the afternoon.

This totals to 2/3 + 1/4 = 8/12 + 3/12

= 11/12.

Thomas added 5/8 of a bag of fertilizer.

To find out how much more fertilizer Denise used than Thomas, we need to subtract Thomas's fraction from Denise's. We convert 5/8 to twelfths to get 15/24, which is 7.5/12 when reduced.

So, Denise used 11/12 - 7.5/12 more fertilizer than Thomas, which is 3.5/12 or about 0.292 of a bag more.