Ok so I have an example and I used it for my work. First I'll show the example. Multiply a mixed number with a whole number. 4 times 2 and 1/8 . You multiply 4 times 2 and 4 times 1/8. Get 8 + 4/8. Simplified and got 8 and 1/2.
The problem that I got was. You are a lead carpenter repairing an old house. The old structure was made with lumber dimensions that are no longer standard measures. One beam has 5 stacked boards that are each 1 and 3/4 inches thick. What is the thickness of the beam? I got 5 and 15/4 but my answer is wrong although I followed the previous example by distributing etc.
Ok so I have an example and I used it for my work. First I'll show the example. Multiply a mixed number with a whole number. 4 times 2 and 1/8 . You multiply 4 times 2 and 4 times 1/8. Get 8 + 4/8. Simplified and got 8 and 1/2.
The problem that I got was. You are a lead carpenter repairing an old house. The old structure was made with lumber dimensions that are no longer standard measures. One beam has 5 stacked boards that are each 1 and 3/4 inches thick. What is the thickness of the beam? I got 5 and 15/4 but my answer is wrong although I followed the previous example by distributing etc. I know the answer is eight and something. Need an explanation.
Answer this Question
To find the thickness of the beam, you correctly multiplied the number of boards (5) by the thickness of each board (1 and 3/4). However, the answer you obtained, 5 and 15/4, can be further simplified to get the correct answer.
To simplify a mixed number, you need to add the whole number part to the improper fraction part. In this case, the improper fraction part is 15/4.
To convert the improper fraction to a mixed number, divide the numerator (15) by the denominator (4). The quotient will be the whole number part of the mixed number, and the remainder will be the numerator of the fraction.
15 divided by 4 is 3 with a remainder of 3. Therefore, the whole number part is 3, and the fraction part is 3/4.
Combining the whole number part (3) with the fraction part (3/4), the correct answer is 3 and 3/4. Therefore, the thickness of the beam is 3 and 3/4 inches.
To check your answer, you can also multiply 5 by 1 and 3/4 to see if you get the correct product. 5 times 1 and 3/4 equals 8 and 3/4, which matches the thickness of the beam.