Question

A cookie factory uses 1 1/5 bags of flour in each batch of cookies. the factory used 7 1/5 bags of flour yesterday. how many batches of cookies did the factory make?

Answer 1

Hello!

To find how much batches of cookies the factory made, we need to divide the total number of bags of flour used by how many bags of flour are needed for one batch of cookies.

Before dividing, we need to convert the complex fraction into an improper fraction.

1 1/5 → 5 × 1 + 1 = 6/5

7 1/5 → 5 × 7 + 1 = 36/5

For every batch of cookies, the factory uses 6/5 bags of flour. Yesterday, the factory used 36/5 bags of flour.

Remember when dividing by a fraction, it is like multiplying its reciprocal. This means that the second fraction is flipped, then which it can be multiplied together.

$\frac{36}{5} / \frac{6}{5}$ → $\frac{36}{5} * \frac{5}{6} = \frac{180}{30} = 6$

Therefore, the cookie factory made 6 batches of cookies yesterday.