Question

Joan order carpet that was 11/16 inch thick. The pad underneath was 5:8 inch thick. How much thicker is the carpet than the pad?

Answer 1

We need to find how much thicker than the pad the carpet is.

In order to do so, we need to find equivalent fractions so the denominators are the same. Then, we can subtract the fractions.

We can write:

`5:8=(5)/(8)=(5)/(8)*(2)/(2)=(5*2)/(8*2)=(10)/(16)`

Thus, the pad underneath is 10/16 inch thick, and the carpet is 11/16 inch thick.

Since those fractions have the same denominator, we can subtract 10/16 from 11/16 as follows:

`(11)/(16)-(10)/(16)=(11-10)/(16)=(1)/(16)`

Answer

The carpet is 1/16 inch thicker than the pad.