Question

Charlotte volunteered to deliver dinners for seniors. The supervisor told her to take half the meals to Oak Hill Senior Center, one-fourth of them to the Glenview Apartment complex, and one-fifth of them to North-side neighborhood center. Unfortunately, there were 19 meals, which didn’t divide evenly as mandated. How could Charlotte follow the supervisor’s instructions without splitting apart any meals?

Answer 1

Charlotte should take 5 meals to Glenview Apartment complex, 4 meals to North-side neighborhood center and 10 meals to Oak Hill Senior Center

Explanation:

The given number of meals = 19 meals

The fraction of the meals to be taken to Oak Hill = (1/2)

The fraction of the meals to be taken to Glenview Apartment = (1/4)

The fraction of the meals to be taken to North-side neighborhood = (1/5)

Let A represent an even number of meals, we have;

The total meals she delivers = (1/2)·A + (1/4)·A + (1/5)·A = (19/20)·A

The remaining meals = A - (19/20)·A = (1/20)·A

Therefore, if the meals where 20, she would have an excess of 1 meal left

Therefore, the number of meals she can share using the given fractions = 19 meals

Therefore;

The number of whole meals she can take to Glenview = 20×(1/4) meals = 5 meals

The number of whole meals she can take to North-side neighborhood = 20 × (1/5) meals = 4 meals

Therefore, the number of meals she would take to Oak Hill Senior Center = (20 - 5 - 4) meals = 10 meals