Question

Melody made a brownie for a potluck. She cut the pan of brownies into equal size pieces. At the end of the potluck, there were 6 brownies left over. Explain how you can find the number of pieces in the whole pan of brownies if Melody told you that 2⁄5 of the

pan was left. Use a drawing to show your work.

Answer 1

We are told that 6 is two-fifths of the brownies. So we can figure it out as such:

`(6)/(x) = (2)/(5)`

Cross multiply

6 * 5 = x * 2

30 = 2x

Divide both sides of the equal sign by 2 to get x by itself

`(30)/(2) =(2x)/(2)`

15 = x

15/5 = 3. Every third piece is 1/5 of the pan.