[SPLIT, MOVED, MERGED] solve (3y)/4 - 1/2 + (3y)/2 = 2 - y

The problem to be solved is:

3y/4 - 1/2 + 3y/2 = 2-y

I tried solving as follows:

6y/6 - 1/2 = 2 - y
2y - 1/2 = 2
2y - 1/2 = 2
2/y -1/2 + 1/2 = 2 + 1/2
2y/2 = (2 1/2) / 2
y = 1 1/2
 
Hi RRAPP:

Thanks for showing your work.

3y/4 - 1/2 + 3y/2 = 2-y

6y/6 - 1/2 = 2 - y
Click to expand...

I see a mistake in your first step involving the combination of like terms 3y/4 and 3y/2

Adding these two terms does not result in 6y/6.

Check your arithmetic for 3/4 + 3/2.

Please feel free to post your new work if you still don't get it.

Cheers,

~ Mark :)
 
Hi RRAPP:

Are you trying to tell me that you need help adding 3/4 + 3/2?

Otherwise, if you corrected this mistake and replaced the incorrect term 6y/6 with the correct one, then continue with the same steps you originally posted.

Or, if you simply want somebody to list all of the correct steps so that you don't have to think too much, then just ask.

~ Mark :)
 
RRAPP said:
The problem to be solved is:
3y/4 - 1/2 + 3y/2 = 2-y
I tried solving as follows:
6y/6 - 1/2 = 2 - y
2y - 1/2 = 2
2y - 1/2 = 2
2/y -1/2 + 1/2 = 2 + 1/2
2y/2 = (2 1/2) / 2
y = 1 1/2
Click to expand...
Are you a student? If so, only your teacher can help you: you evidently have no idea what you're doing...sorry.
 
I can follow RRAPPs reasoning. All of the equations after the exercise are true, except for two incorrect terms: 6y/6 and 1 1/2. (This assumes that the slash in 2/y is a typo; I see evidence that it is.) It's not polished, but the steps do lead to y = number.

RRAPP, you need to fix 3y/4 + 3y/2. You did not correctly add these terms.

Also, when you divided (2 + 1/2) by 2 as the very last step, you ended up with 1½. That's close, but wrong. It is 1¼. But, of course, even 1¼ is wrong because you were working with the incorrect term 6y/6.

Anyway, your steps makes sense to me; you just made some arithmetic mistakes with fractions. If the work that you posted is your own work, then I think you have the ability to correctly finish this exercise. Fix 6y/6, and then see if you can get the correct answer, which is y = 10/13.

I'd like to make a suggestion, too. When you work with fractions from now on, do not convert them to mixed numbers.

In other words, leave 5/4 as it is; do not change it to the mixed number 1¼.

This will make your arithmetic with fractions easier in algebra because it will save you the time of converting mixed numbers back into improper fractions when you need to use them again. We only need to report a mixed number when it helps make sense of some word problem's answer that happens to be an improper fraction. For example, if your answer to some word problem is "47/2 barrels of oil", then a mixed number is more easily understood -- "23½ barrels of oil'.

Please let us know if you need more help. You're almost there.

~ Mark
 
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