Bernadette bought two pieces of ribbon. One piece is 6 1/4 feet long, and the other is 11 1/2 feet long. Find the total length of the ribbon.
To find the total lengths of the two pieces of ribbon, we need to add the lengths of the two pieces together.
The first piece of ribbon is 6 1/4 feet long. To add this length to the total, we first need to convert the mixed number to an improper fraction.
To do this, we multiply the whole number (6) by the denominator (4) and add the numerator (1). This gives us 6 x 4 + 1 = 25.
So, the first piece of ribbon is 25/4 feet long.
The second piece of ribbon is 11 1/2 feet long. Similarly, we need to convert this mixed number to an improper fraction.
Again, we multiply the whole number (11) by the denominator (2) and add the numerator (1). This gives us 11 x 2 + 1 = 23.
So, the second piece of ribbon is 23/2 feet long.
To find the total length of the ribbon, we add the two lengths together:
25/4 + 23/2 = ?
To add fractions, we need a common denominator.
The common denominator between 4 and 2 is 4.
So, we need to convert the fraction 23/2 to have a denominator of 4.
To do this, we multiply both the numerator and denominator by 2:
23/2 x 2/2 = 46/4
Now we can add the fractions:
25/4 + 46/4 = 71/4
Therefore, the total length of the ribbon is 71/4 feet.