Question

Louisa walked 3 and 1/4 of a mile on Monday, 2 and 4/5 mile on Tuesday, and 1 and 1/8 mile today. ESTIMATE the total distance she walked on these 3 days.
Thank you and could you explain how you did it?.

Answer 1

The total distance she walked is going to be the sum of all of the distances.

The first day she walked 3 1/4 of a mile, the second day she walked 2 4/5 of a mile and the third day she walked 1 1/8 of a mile.

total distance = 3 1/4 + 2 4/5 + 1 1/8

We can add up the whole number portions of these number and save the fraction part for after.

total distance = 3 + 2 + 1 + 1/4 + 4/5 + 1/8 = 6 + 1/4 + 4/5 + 1/8

Now we have to add the fraction portions.

which is 1/4 + 4/5 + 1/8
to do this we need to find a common denominator for all of these numbers (unless we were to convert them to decimals)

The tricky number here is going to be finding the multiple of 8 that goes with both 4 and 5. I'm going to try 8 * 5 (because I know both 8 and 5 goes in to it) and I get 40 which 4 goes into also.

1/4 + 4/5 + 1/8 = 10/40 + 32/40 + 5/40 = 47/40 = 1 7/40

Now we can add this to our whole part

total distance = 6 + 1 7/40 = 7 7/40

Answer 2

just add 3 1/4 , 2 4/5 and 1 1/8.

You can convert them into improper fractions -

13/4 + 14/5 + 9/8

The L.C.M of 4,5,8 = 40.

so we have - 13x10/4x10 + 14x8/5x8 + 9x5/8x5

(10,8,5 is the factor which makes 4,5,8 respectively 40 on multiplying)

+> 130+112+45/40

=> 287/40 = approx 7.175 miles

Answer 3

thank you Hunus and luckythebest

Answer 4

Yup :)