5th grade math parent. This will sound dumb but.... 5/7 1/2 and 3/14. The sum is 1 3/7 correct? The question reads MArshall surveyed his classmates and found 5/7 have a sister, 1/2 have a brother, and 3/14 do not have siblings. The question is: Why does it make sense for the sum to be greater than 1 whole?

Because those students who have a sister probably have a brother also or vice versa. So it's like they are counted twice. So naturally the count would be greater than the actual number of students.


I'll give you an example. For instance, Marshall has 14 classmates.
5/7 of 14 = 10 students have a sister
1/2 of 14 = 7 students have a brother
3/14 of 14 = 3 students have no siblings
The total is 20 (greater than 14). But what if 6 out of 7 students with a brother have also a sister? Thus, in those 10 students with a sister, 6 of them have also a brother, and so 10 - 6 = 4, and only this 4 students have a sister alone.
To summarize again:
4 have a sister alone
6 have a sister & brother
1 has a brother alone (this is from 7 - 6)
3 have no siblings.
Adding them: 4 + 6 + 1 + 3 = 14 (which is equal to the actual)

Don't worry, it's not really a dumb question. Actually it's pretty tricky. :)
Hope this helps~ :3

Well, it's not a dumb question at all! Let me explain why the sum is greater than 1 whole in this case.

Marshall surveyed his classmates and found that 5/7 of them have a sister, 1/2 have a brother, and 3/14 do not have siblings. If we add those fractions together, we get 5/7 + 1/2 + 3/14.

Now, when we add these fractions, we find that the sum is indeed 1 3/7.

But why does it make sense for the sum to be greater than 1 whole? Well, think about it this way. When we say that 5/7 have a sister, 1/2 have a brother, and 3/14 do not have siblings, we are counting different groups of people.

Some of the students have both a sister and a brother, so they get counted twice. That's why the sum is bigger than 1 whole. It represents the fact that some students fall into multiple categories.

So, it's not as simple as just adding up the fractions individually. We have to take into account the overlapping groups, which is why the sum is greater than 1 whole. Hope that clears things up for you!

Yes, the sum of the fractions 5/7, 1/2, and 3/14 is indeed 1 3/7.

Now, let's address why the sum is greater than 1 whole and why it makes sense in this context.

In the given scenario, Marshall surveyed his classmates to find out the proportions of students with siblings.

We can interpret the fractions as follows:
- 5/7 have a sister means that out of all the classmates surveyed, 5 out of 7 have a sister.
- 1/2 have a brother means that out of all the classmates surveyed, 1 out of 2 have a brother.
- 3/14 do not have siblings means that out of all the classmates surveyed, 3 out of 14 do not have any siblings.

When we add the fractions together, we are combining the individual proportions.

Since each fraction represents a different aspect of the survey (sister, brother, no siblings), it is expected that some students will have both a sister and a brother (overlap) or none at all.

Therefore, it makes sense for the sum to be greater than 1 whole (1) because some students will have both a sister and a brother, while others will have no siblings. The additional fractions indicate the overlap of different categories, resulting in a sum greater than 1.

It's a great question! Let me explain why the sum is greater than 1 whole in this case.

Marshall surveyed his classmates and found that 5/7 have a sister, 1/2 have a brother, and 3/14 do not have siblings. To find the total number of students who have either a sister, a brother, or no siblings, we need to add these fractions together.

To add fractions, we need a common denominator. In this case, the least common denominator (LCD) for 7, 2, and 14 is 14. We can rewrite each fraction with the denominator of 14:

5/7 can be rewritten as (5/7) * (2/2) = 10/14.
1/2 can be rewritten as (1/2) * (7/7) = 7/14.
3/14 remains as it is.

Now, let's add these fractions together: 10/14 + 7/14 + 3/14. When we add the numerators (the numbers on the top), we get 10 + 7 + 3 = 20. So, the sum of the fractions is 20/14.

To simplify the fraction, we can find the greatest common divisor (GCD) of 20 and 14, which is 2. Dividing both the numerator and the denominator by 2, we get 10/7.

So, the sum of the fractions is 10/7, which can also be written as the mixed number 1 3/7.

Now, let's answer your question. It makes sense for the sum to be greater than 1 whole because Marshall surveyed his classmates for multiple attributes (having a sister, having a brother, and having no siblings). Since these attributes are not exclusive, some students may have both a sister and a brother, resulting in a sum greater than 1. In this case, 1 3/7 represents the total fraction of students who have at least one of the mentioned attributes.