word problems, write the answer in a complete sentence, show steps, and make sure a second grader can understand.
1) Aunt Sue spends 1/5 of her household expenses on groceries and 1/2 of it on utilities. The rest of her household expenses is spent on pet grooming.
a) each pet use this 1/10 of her household expenses. How many pets does Aunt Sue have?
b) she spends $375 on pet grooming. How much is her household expenses?
a) To find out how many pets Aunt Sue has, we need to add the fractions together that represent the amount of money she spends on groceries and utilities: 1/5 + 1/2 = 2/10 + 5/10 = 7/10. Since each pet uses 1/10 of her household expenses, we can divide 7/10 by 1/10 to find out how many pets Aunt Sue has: 7/10 ÷ 1/10 = 7. So, Aunt Sue has 7 pets.
b) If Aunt Sue spends $375 on pet grooming and that amount is the rest of her household expenses, we need to add together the fractions representing groceries and utilities: 1/5 + 1/2 = 7/10. Since $375 is 7/10 of her household expenses, we divide $375 by 7/10 to find her total household expenses: $375 ÷ 7/10 = $375 ÷ 0.7 = $535.71. Therefore, Aunt Sue's household expenses is $535.71.