rational numbers: a school has 6 3/4 kg of detergent in stock.

[maryamj]

a school has 6 3/4 kg of detergent in stock. during the use your hand campaign, each class will be given 3/8 kg of detergent. there are 28 classes in the school.
a) what fraction of the school will be supplied in stock?
b) how much detergent will be required altogether for the whole school?
c) how much more detergent does the school need to order?
d) if the school gives out the detergent in stock to the 15 lower secondary classes first,
i.how much detergent will be given out?
ii. how much detergent in stock will be left?

this was a question i was facing problems with this question because i couldn't understand how to solve the different parts like which arithmetic operation should be put where and where to put which value to solve the question...i still tried to solve it but somehow i mixed it all up the c and d part i understood but the rest were really difficult...i will really really appreciate it if someone helps because i really really need it!

 

[ksdhart]

This problem looks very similar to the previous one you posted. Did you read the feedback that was given to you there? You say you tried to solve this problem, so please show all your work (even if you know it's wrong). If we know what you've tried and specifically where you're stuck, we can better advise you.

 

[maryamj]

This problem looks very similar to the previous one you posted. Did you read the feedback that was given to you there? You say you tried to solve this problem, so please show all your work (even if you know it's wrong). If we know what you've tried and specifically where you're stuck, we can better advise you.

I don't understand what does the a part mean, is it referring to how much of the school will get the detergent from stock or how much more detergent would be needed? And what arithmetic operation will be used to solve the a part.

 

[ksdhart]

Okay, so there's a good starting point. Part A asks "What fraction of the school will be supplied in stock?" You wondered if this meant how much the school currently has, or how much more they'll need. Well, we can find that answer by peeking ahead at part C, which asks "How much more detergent does the school need to order?" Let's think about that for a second. If part A was asking how much more the school needs, then it doesn't make sense for part C to ask the exact same thing, does it? So we can infer that part A is asking how much detergent the school has now.

As far as what mathematical operation you'd use, let's reason some things out. The question asks "what fraction" of the amount needed is currently in stock. What do you know about fractions? What mathematical operation do they represent? So, that's definitely one of the operations you'd use. Continuing on, your fraction will have two parts: how much the school has now, and how much the school needs. Since part B says to find the total amount needed the school, we'll solve that part here. The problem tells you there are 28 classes, and that each class needs 3/8 kg of detergent. So what mathematical operation do you think you'd need to solve part B? As a hint, you might try a similar, easier problem - like, say, if you have 5 friends and you give each of your friends 2 pieces of candy, then how many pieces of candy would you give away?

Hopefully that's enough to help you on your way. Good luck.