Question

Claire lives 6/8 of a mile from the store and 4/5 of this distance from her best friend. How far does Claire live from her best friend?

Answer 1

well....she lives 6/8 of a mile from the store....and 4/5 of that 6/8 from her friend

so

4/5 of 6/8 means

4/5 * 6/8

6*4 = 24
8*5 = 40

24/40
------
8 / 8

3 / 5

so she lives 3/5 of a mile from her friend

Answer 2

sure, but i need to explain my little boy here that why we multiply -- any explanation on that would be great and sincerely appreciated (he had added both the fractions!)

Answer 3

hmm...okay lets see


Well when you add the 2 fractions.....you are adding the distances here
so lets do this out that way

6 4
- + -
8 5

find the lcd which is 40 and get

30 32
-- + ---
40 40

now add to get

62
--
40

simplify it to

31
--
20

or as a mixed fraction

1 and 11/20

if THAT was the answer....it would be said that the distance was 1 mile and 11/20 of a mile

In the question....it states that each distance....didn't even reach a mile
(6/8 of a mile means less than a mile) (4/5 of that distance means an even smaller part of that so still less than a mile)

so that would make no sense to add the 2 because as you can see...you wouldn't come to a logical answer


so now


If I asked....what is 1/2 OF 20...how would you find it?
You are taking the fractional part of that number.....

so 1/2 of 20......means you take 20....multiply it by 1....then divide THAT answer by 2....to get 10....you have found the fractional part (1/2) of 20.

if I asked what is 2/6 of 60?
again....you are finding the fractional part...of 60
for this you do the same thing...multiply the 60 by 2....then divide THAT answer by 6.....to get 20...you have found the fractional part (2/6) of 60


it works the same with fraction times a fraction

here you are finding the fractional part of 6/8
so what is 4/5 of 6/8?

you do the SAME thing....multiply the 2 top numbers ( 4*6) and the 2 bottom numbers (5*8)
to get

24/40
now what number goes into both? 8 looks good so

24/8? = 3
40/8? = 5

so you have 3/5

you have found that 3/5 ....is the fractional part (4/5) of 6/8

I'm not sure if that helps but...