Question

Messy Essy very rarely cleaned off her table. She started with 3 5/8 inches of mail piled up, and she added 3/4 inches of mail each day. How tall will the pile of mail be after 5 days?

A. 6 5/8 inches
B. 7 3/8 inches
C. 8 3/4 inches
D. 8 19/20 inches

Answer 1

i'm pretty sure it's b sorry if i'm wrong

Answer 2

B. 7 3/8 inches (
`7(3)/(8)` inches)

Explanation:

So we have 3
`(5)/(8)` to start.
`(3)/(4)` is added every day, so the number of days can be x. Our equation will look like this:

y = 3
`(5)/(8)` +
`(3)/(4)`x

where y is how tall the pile is and x is the number of days.

They give us a x value, which is 5, as it says "after 5 days" so we can plug that into our equation:

y = 3
`(5)/(8)` +
`(3)/(4)`x

y = 3
`(5)/(8)` +
`(3)/(4)`(5)

Now, let's solve.

Multiply the 5 into the three fourths:

y = 3
`(5)/(8)` +
`(15)/(4)`

Now we need to add them together, I am going to turn 3
`(5)/(8)` into an improper fraction:

3 * 8 = 24

24 + 5 = 29

29 / 8

Next, let's turn 15/4 into a common denominator of 29/8 by multiplying both the numberator and the denominator by 2:

30/8

Then, let's add:

y =
`(29)/(8) +(30)/(8)=(59)/(8)`

Last, I am going to turn it into a mixed number so we can chose our answer.

`(59)/(8)=7.375=7(3)/(8)`

This brings us to our answer of B.