Question

Malia bought shell beads and glass beads to weave into designs in her baskets. She bought 1/4 pound of shell beads and 3/8 pound of glass beads. How many pounds of beads did she buy?

Answer 1

Answer: 5/8

Explanation:

To do this you have to add the weight of each purchase

`(1)/(4) +(3)/(8)`

But in order to add them together, there has to be a common denominator.

In order to do this, you can multiply both the numerator and denominator of 1/4 by 2 to get a denominator of 8 as seen below:

`(1)/(4)*(2)/(2) = (2)/(8)`

Now you can add them to get your final answer: When you are adding fractions with common denominators, simply add the numerators together and keep the denominator.

`(2)/(8)+(3)/(8) = (5)/(8)`