Question

Mattie's house consists of two stories and an attic. The first floor is 85/6 feet tall, and the second floor is 81/2 feet tall. The entire house is 241/3 feet tall. How long is the attic? (tell an answer)

Answer 1

Height of entire house = height of first floor + height of second floor + height of attic

Rearrange to make "Height of attic" the subject
To do this, place "height of first floor" and "height of second floor on the other side of the equation"

So:
Height of attic = Height of entire house - height of first floor - height of second floor

Height of attic = 241/3 - 85/6 - 81/2



Next problem, they are all in fractions.
So make a common/same denominator (bottom number)

Let's make the common denominator 6.
241/3 x 2/2 = 482/6

*It still has the same value

85/6 already has a denominator of 6 so no need to do anything to it.

81/2 x 3/3 = 243/6

Height of attic = 482/6 -85/6 -243/6

Simplify it to one fraction since they all have the same denominator now:

Height of attic = (482 - 85 - 243) / 6

Height of attic = 154/6