SOLUTION: sheila practiced 1 1/2 hours on monday, 3 3/4 hours on Tuesday, and 2 1/4 hours on Wed. What is the total number of hours that she practiced? I got down to 30/4 = 7 2/4. But

Click here to see ALL problems on Trigonometry-basics

Question 112398: sheila practiced 1 1/2 hours on monday, 3 3/4 hours on Tuesday, and 2 1/4 hours on Wed. What is the total number of hours that she practiced?
I got down to 30/4 = 7 2/4. But can I reduce it to 8 1/2 ?
Found 2 solutions by Earlsdon, bucky:
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Well, you first answer is correct, the total hours of practice is 7 2/4 or 7 1/2.
But you have a typo in your question when you ask; "...can I reduce 7 2/4 to 8 1/2". The answer of course is no! It's 7 1/2

Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You can't reduce it to 8 1/2, but you can reduce it.
.
You got 30/4 and that is correct.
.
Then you divided 4 into 30 and you got 7 2/4 and that is also correct.
.
Next you can recognize that 2/4 is equivalent to 1/2. [You can get that by dividing the
numerator and the denominator of 2/4 by 2. That makes the numerator 1 and the denominator 2.]
.
So your answer of 7 2/4 becomes 7 1/2 when you replace the 2/4 by its equal of 1/2.
.
The reduced answer to this problem is 7 1/2 .... not 8 1/2.
.
You did everything else correctly. Good job!!!
.