Question

Dwayne buys ingredients to make a cake. He buys 1/1/2 pounds of flour, 12 ounces of coconut, and 1/1/4 pounds of sugar. What is the total weight of the ingredients Dwayne bought?

Answer 1

3 1/2 pounds or 3.5 pounds

Explanation:

Two ingredients are measured in pounds while one is measured in ounces. Recall that 1 pound = 16 ounces. Thus, 12 ounces of cocoanut comes out to

(12/16) pound. Next, we sum up 1 1/2 pounds of flour, 12/16 pound of cocoanut and 1 1/4 pounds of sugar, after rewriting these mixed numbers with the same denominator (4):

1 1/2 pounds stays 1 2/4 pounds;

12 ounces becomes 3/4 pound; and

1 1/4 pounds stays 1 1/4 pounds

Summing up the fractions results in 6/4 pounds, or 1 1/2 pounds; and summing up the integers results in 2 pounds.

The final sum is 1 1/2 pounds + 2 pounds, or 3 1/2 pounds.

Dwayne buys 3 1/2 pounds of ingredients.

Alternatively, we could convert all of these measurements to decimal fractions and then add up those fractions:

1.5 pounds + 0.75 pounds + 1.25 pounds = 3.5 pounds (same as before).