SOLUTION: Clyde took a taxi 1/4 of the distance to Bonnie's house and a bus for 1/3 of the distance to her house. Finally, he walked the remaining 5 miles to her house. How many miles did

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Question 7648: Clyde took a taxi 1/4 of the distance to Bonnie's house and a bus for 1/3 of the distance to her house. Finally, he walked the remaining 5 miles to her house. How many miles did Clyde travel in total?
I don't understand how to set up the problem. Thanks!
Answer by prince_abubu(198) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let's call the total distance D. 1/4 of the distance would be . The next 1/3 of the distance is , and after both distances are covered, there are 5 miles to go. So, just add up the three distances and they all should equal D:

<---- You've got fractions to work with here, so hang on.

<---- We just moved the fractional terms to the other side so they could be combined since they are like terms.

The right side of the equation really is a task for you to compute . I trust that you know how to do that. That's actually equal to which brings you to . The right side of your equation would then be

<---- the 1 - 1/4 - 1/3, then multiplied by D

<---- multiply both sides by the reciprocal of 5/12, which is 12/5

<---- the 5 in the numerator cancels with the 5 in the denominator. The trip was 12 miles total.