Question

Rose bought some spinach. She used 3/5 of the spinach on a pan of spinach pie for a party and 3/4 of the remaining spinach for a pan for her family. She used the rest of the spinach to make a salad.
What fraction of the spinach did she use ti make the salad?

b. If Rose used 3 pounds of spinach to make the pan of spinach pie for the party , how many pounds of spinach did Rose use to make salad?

Answer 1

Quantity of spinach that Rose bought: x

Quantity used on the pan of spinach pie for the party: (3/5)x

Remaining spinach: x-(3/5)x=(1-3/5)x=(5/5-3/5)x=[(5-3)/5]x=(2/5)x

Quantity used on a pan for her family: (3/4)(2/5)x=[(3*2)/(4*5)]=(6/20)x
Quantity used on a pan for her family:(3/10)x

Quantity use to make the salad: x-(3/5)x-(3/10)x=(1-3/5-3/10)x
Quantity use to make the salad: [(10*1-2*3-1*3)/10]x=[(10-6-3)/10]x
Quantity use to make the salad: (1/10)x

a. What fraction of the spinach did she use to make the salad?
She used 1/10 of the spinach to make the salad.

b. If Rose used 3 pounds of spinach to make the pan of spinach pie for the party , how many pounds of spinach did Rose use to make salad?

Quantity used on the pan of spinach pie for the party: (3/5)x= 3 pounds
Quantity used to make the salad: (1/10)x=?

We need to find x. Solving for x in the quantity used on the pan of spinach pie for the party:
(3/5)x=3 pounds
(5/3)(3/5)x=(5/3)(3 pounds)
x=15/3 pounds
x= 5 pounds

Quantity of spinach that Rose bought: x= 5 pounds

Now we can find the quantity used to make the salad:
(1/10)x=(1/10)(5 pounds)=(5/10) pounds=(1/2) pound = 0.5 pound

Answer: Quantity used to make the salad is 1/2=0.5 pound

Answer 2

a. She used 1/10 of the spinach for a salad.

b. She used 1/2 pound of spinach for the salad.

We can solve each part of this problem by using a "fraction strip". The strip helps show a breakdown of what portion of spinach was used for each the party, family, and salad. See the attached image for a step by step example of how to multiply the fractions to find the correct portions.