Fraction of a Fraction ;-)

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Ramona317

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okay......

If I have a 1/2 bushel of apples, 1/4 is gala and 3/4 are pink ladies, what fraction of the whole bushel is gala and what fraction of the whole is pink ladies?

I can reason an estimated percent (decimal) in my head but I cannot remember the math to get an exact fraction answer.

All the best,

dee
 
"Of" means to multiply. For instance, 1/4 of 1/5 means 1/4 X 1/5.
\(\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}\cdot \frac{1}{5}= \frac{1\cdot 1}{4\cdot 5}=\frac{1}{20}\)
 
so that would give me:

1/8 bushel is gala and 3/8 of the bushel is pink ladies....correct?


1/4 * 1/2= 1/8
3/4 * 1/2= 3/8
 
Ramona317 said:
so that would give me:

1/8 bushel is gala and 3/8 of the bushel is pink ladies....correct? <<<< Do they add upto 1/2 ? If they do - you're most probably correct.


1/4 * 1/2= 1/8
3/4 * 1/2= 3/8
Click to expand...
 
the fraction 1/2 means 1 out of every 2 in cases like this.
A quarter of half means we divide that half by 4, which is now the
total divided by 8.
The language is deceptive as we are really dividing "into" 2 equal parts,
then dividing both of those two parts "into" 4 equal pieces,
giving us 8 equal parts or portions.
It is that awareness that the maths is coded from.
We can write a division by 4 as "times the fraction 1/4".
We are not really multiplying by a quarter, it's just math slang.
We multiply by 1 and divide by 4, of course multiplying by 1 doesn't achieve much(!).
Finding a quarter of a half involves dividing by 2 and 4, overall dividing by 8,
so we just multiply the denominators to do the calculations fast.
 
Chris, posting to inactive threads (like this one, almost 2 months inactive) is usually
a waste of time, as the original poster ain't around no more, no more 8-)
 
Ok guys,
you're right,
sorry about that,
I didn't even check the date!
I was a greenhorn yesterday
 
chrisr said:
Ok guys,
you're right,
sorry about that,
I didn't even check the date!
I was a greenhorn yesterday
Click to expand...

No problem - we always razz the newcomer a bit.

Thanks for helping and welcome.....
 
thanks Subhotosh!
I appreciate that,
this is a really good site!
best I've seen.
 
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