Question

jane is making a suit which requires 25/8 yards for the jacket and 1 3/4 yards for the skirt. what's the total amount of material she needs?

Answer 1

We add 25/8 yards and 1 3/4 yards together.

First we convert 1 3/4 to an imp. fraction 7/4.

In order to add fractions, they must have the same common denominator. So we multiply both sides of the fraction 7/4 by 2 to get 14/8.  Now we can add 25/8 yards and 14/8 yards together to get 39/8 yards.