Maisie cuts 7 4/5 inches from a ribbon that is 10 1/5 inches long. How many inches remain on the ribbon?
To subtract \(\displaystyle 7\ \dfrac{4}{5}\) from \(\displaystyle 10\ \dfrac{1}{5}\), we need to make the denominators the same so we can subtract the fractions: \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle 7\ \frac{4}{5}\ =\ 7\frac{20}{25}\ =\ 7\frac{4}{5}.\) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ ) \(\displaystyle 10\ \frac{1}{5} = 10\ \frac{5}{25} =10\ \frac{1}{5} .\)
Since \(\displaystyle 10\ \frac{5}{25}\ -\ 7\ \frac{20}{25} = 10\ \frac{5\ -\ 20}{25} =10\ \frac{ -15}{25} ,\) we see that the difference is negative. This means that Maisie is cutting off more than the length of the ribbon. If we had a ribbon that was 10 inches long and cut off 7 inches, then only 3 inches would remain. Since her ribbon was originally even longer than 10 inches, but she cut off an even larger piece than just 7 inches of it, there must be \boxed{0} inches remaining.