Question

Mrs Hansen picked tomatoes from her garden and got 25 cups of chopped tomatoes. She used 5 1/2 cups of the tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. She also used 3 3/4 cups to make chili. She separated the remaining chopped tomatoes into 3 equal portions and froze them. How many cups of tomatoes were in each portion that she froze?

Answer 1

STEP 1:
find the portion size used to freeze; subtract all cups used from total cups of chopped tomatoes

= total cups - (cups used already)

= 25 cups - (5 1/2 + 3 3/4)
convert all to improper fractions

= 25/1 - (11/2 + 15/4)
find common denominator

= 100/4 - (22/4 + 15/4)
add in parentheses

= 100/4 - 37/4
subtract numerators

= 63/4 cups left to freeze


STEP 2:
divide cups left into 3 equal portion sizes

= 63/4 ÷ 3
to divide fractions; multiply by reciprocal of 3

= 63/4 * 1/3
multiply numerators; multiply denominators

= (63*1)/(4*3)

= 63/12
simplify by 3

= 21/4
convert back to mixed number

= 5 1/4 cups


ANSWER: There are 5 1/4 cups in each portion she froze.

Hope this helps! :)