Question

Alan's aunt bakes a large loaf of bread and a small loaf of bread. She cuts each loaf into tenths and gives Alan 3 tenths of each loaf to take home. Alan writes the equation 2+3/10​+3/10​. Explain Alan's mistake.

Answer 1

Alan incorrectly added a whole number 2 instead of just adding the fractions from each loaf, resulting in the wrong total of bread he received. The correct equation is 3/10 + 3/10, which simplifies to 3/5 of a loaf.

Step-by-step explanation:

Alan's mistake in writing the equation 2+3/10+3/10 to represent the amount of bread he received is that he added a whole number 2 instead of combining the fractional parts from each loaf of bread. To correct the mistake, we should add just the fractions because he gets three tenths from each loaf, not two whole loaves plus fractions. Therefore, the corrected equation should be 3/10 + 3/10, which equals 6/10 or simplified to 3/5 of a loaf.