Colton is making a large batch of clay for his art class his recipe for clay requires 7 1/2 cups of flour. However Colton only makes 5 5/8 cups of the flour so he can only make a portion of the recipe.
Colton can only make a portion of the recipe because he only has 5 5/8 cups of flour, which is less than the required 7 1/2 cups.
To find out how much of the recipe Colton can make, we need to subtract the amount of flour he has (5 5/8 cups) from the required amount (7 1/2 cups).
First, let's convert the mixed numbers to improper fractions:
5 5/8 = (5 * 8 + 5) / 8 = 45/8
So, Colton has 45/8 cups of flour.
Now, let's subtract this amount from 7 1/2:
7 1/2 - 45/8
To subtract fractions, we need to find a common denominator. The least common multiple (LCM) of 2 and 8 is 8. So, we rewrite 7 1/2 as 7 4/8.
7 4/8 - 45/8 = (7 * 8 + 4) / 8 - 45/8 = 60/8 - 45/8 = 15/8
Colton can therefore make 15/8 cups of the recipe with the amount of flour he has. However, since fractions of cups don't make sense in this context, we need to convert this into a mixed number.
The whole number part of the mixed number is the result of dividing the numerator (15) by the denominator (8). 15 divided by 8 is 1 with a remainder of 7. So, the whole number part is 1.
The fractional part of the mixed number is the remainder (7) over the denominator (8). So, the fractional part is 7/8.
Hence, Colton can make 1 7/8 cups of the recipe with the amount of flour he has.