Question

Mary plants roseas in 1/4 of her garden. She also plants some tulips in her garden. She has 1/12 of the garden left to plant more flowers. What fraction of Mary's garden has tulips?

Answer 1

Let x represent the full area if Mary's garden.

Mary plants roses in 1/4 of her garden. This means that the portion of the garden on which she planted roses would be 1/4 × x = x/4

She also plants some tulips in her garden. She has 1/12 of the garden left to plant more flowers. This means that the portion if the garden that she has left to plant more flowers would be 1/12 × x = x/12

The portion of the garden on which she planted tulips would be

x - (x/4 + x/12) = x - (3x + x)/12 = x - 4x/12

x - x/3 = (3x - x)/3 = 2x/3

Therefore, the fraction of Mary's garden that has tulips would be

(2x/3) /x = 2/3