A merchant bought 15 2/5 pounds of apples and pears to sell at a fruit stand. 8 3/4 pounds were apples. Calculate the number of pounds of pears.
Group of answer choices
24 3/20 pounds
6 7/20 pounds
6 13/20 pounds
7 13/20 pounds
To find the weight of the pears, subtract the weight of the apples from the total weight.
Subtracting 8 3/4 pounds from 15 2/5 pounds is the same as subtracting 35/4 pounds from 77/5 pounds.
To do this, we need to find a common denominator for 4 and 5, which is 20.
So 8 3/4 pounds is equal to 35/4 pounds and 15 2/5 pounds is equal to 77/5 pounds.
Now we can subtract:
77/5 - 35/4 = (4*77)/(4*5) - (5*35)/(4*5) = 308/20 - 175/20 = (308-175)/20 = 133/20 pounds
So the weight of the pears is 133/20 pounds, which can be simplified to 6 13/20 pounds.
Therefore, the correct answer is 6 13/20 pounds.