Question

Your friend tried putting away the sugar for you and cannot get the 14 cups of sugar to fit in the containers! They determined you would need 9 containers to store the 14 cups of sugar.

They show you their calculations:



Answer the following questions.

What mistake did your friend make in calculating the number of containers needed?
*Hint* Look closely at the work shown to find the mistake

How many containers are needed to store the leftover sugar?

Answer 1

21 containers

Explanation:

When dividing fractions, you can multiply by the inverse of the fraction. For example, in this case,
`14 divided by (2)/(3) = (14)/(1)x(3)/(2)`. Whoever drew the calculations made the mistake of forgetting to flip the second fraction.

The actual solution of the problem is 42/2, or 21/1. 21 containers are needed to store the sugar.