Question

Cody and Sam mowed the yard on Saturday. Dad told Cody to mow ¼ of the yard. He told Sam to mow ⅓ of the remainder of the yard. Dad paid each of the boys an equal amount. Sam said, "Dad, that's not fair! I had to mow one-third, and Cody only mowed one-fourth!" Explain to Sam the error in his thinking.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The easiest way about this is to give a certain arbitrary value as the area of the yard.

now let’s say the area of the yard is 60 ft^2

Cody mowed 1/4 of this = 1/4 * 60 = 15 ft^2

Now Sam mowed 1/3 of remainder. What remains will be 60-15 = 45 ft^2

so what Sam mowed would be 1/3 * 45 = 15 ft^2

Seeing that they mowed same area, they deserved to be paid equal amount of money and Sam need not complain at all