Question

Question #8392f

Answer 1

`35 5/8` `"pounds of grapefruit are ripe"`

Explanation:

Ok, I want you to think of this first.
If a case of grapefruit weighs `8/8` pounds and `1/8` is NOT ripe, that means that what IS ripe is whatever I have MINUS what is not ripe.

So,

`8/8 "pounds of grapefruit"` - `1/8 "of grapefruit that is not ripe" =`

`7/8 "of ripe grapefruit"`

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Now to begin your problem, first we should convert that mixed fraction back to an improper fraction.

`35 3/4`

We do this by multiplying the whole number with the denominator

`35 * 4 = 140`

and then adding the numerator to that number

`140 + 3 = 143`

and finish by copying our original denominator

So now we have `143/4`

Next we need to realize that we need to remove `1/8` of grapefruit that is not ripe from our `143/4` pounds of grapfruit. We need to have equal denominators so we can subtract. In this case we can get equal denominators by multiply the denominator in `143/4` by `2`. Remember whatever we do to the denominator we have to do to the numerator.

`(143 * 2) / (4 * 2) --->` `(286) / (8)`

Now we have equal denominators and we can subtract our `1/8` of grapefruit that is not ripe

`(286) / (8) - (1) / (8) = 285/8`

The method I like to use to convert improper fraction to mixed fraction is

1. Divide to see how many times the denominator fits into the numerator:
   `285 -: 8 = 35` `<--- "This is our whole number"`
2. Multiply that number by the denominator:
   `35 * 8 = 280`
3. Subtract that number from our original numerator to get our remainder:
   `285 - 280 = 5"` `<--- "This is our remainder"`
4. Put our remainder in the numerator and copy our new denominator along with our whole number:
   `35 5/8`