Final answer:
One-third of the athletic field is reserved for the fifth-grade classes, and this area is divided equally among 4 classes. Each class is allocated 1/12 of the athletic field.
Step-by-step explanation:
For a school event, one-third of the athletic field is reserved for the fifth-grade classes. If this reserved part is divided equally among the 4 fifth-grade classes, we would need to divide one-third by 4 to find the fraction of the whole athletic field reserved for each fifth-grade class.
To calculate this, we use the division of fractions:
For each fifth-grade class = (1/3) ÷ 4 = (1/3) ÷ (4/1) = (1/3) × (1/4) = 1/12
Therefore, each fifth-grade class gets 1/12 of the athletic field.