Fraction Spent On Food: Supermarket Math Problem

by Sebastian Müller 49 views

Hey guys! Ever wondered how fractions play out in real life, like when you're hitting up the supermarket? Let's dive into a cool problem about a boy and his supermarket spending habits. We'll break it down step by step, making sure everyone gets the hang of it. So, picture this: a young dude strolls into a supermarket with some pocket money jingling in his pocket. He's got a craving for some goodies, and he decides to splurge a bit. Now, the challenge is to figure out exactly how much of his money went towards food. Sounds like a fun math adventure, right? Let's get started!

The Supermarket Spending Spree

So, our main mission here is to figure out the fraction of his pocket money that our young shopper spent on food items. The problem tells us that he spent $ rac{2}{5}$ of his money on biscuits and $ rac{1}{4}$ on plantain chips. These are our key pieces of information. But hold on, there's a catch! He also bought some drinks, and we need to consider that to find out the total fraction spent on food. Remember, food and drinks are different categories, and we're focusing solely on the food part for now. To nail this, we need to combine the fractions spent on biscuits and plantain chips. This involves some basic fraction addition, but we'll walk through it together. We'll make sure to explain each step clearly, so you can follow along easily. Think of it like a cooking recipe – each ingredient (or fraction) plays a part in the final delicious result (the total fraction spent on food). Let's get cooking with these fractions and see what we come up with!

Biscuits and Plantain Chips: A Fraction Feast

Let's break down how much our young shopper spent on biscuits and plantain chips. He used $ rac2}{5}$ of his pocket money for biscuits and $ rac{1}{4}$ for plantain chips. To find the total fraction spent on these tasty treats, we need to add these fractions together. But here's the thing you can't just add fractions when they have different denominators (the bottom number). It's like trying to add apples and oranges – they're different things! So, we need to find a common denominator, a number that both 5 and 4 can divide into evenly. The least common multiple (LCM) of 5 and 4 is 20. This means we'll convert both fractions to have a denominator of 20. For the biscuits, we multiply both the numerator (top number) and the denominator of $ rac{2{5}$ by 4, giving us $ rac{8}{20}$. For the plantain chips, we multiply both the numerator and denominator of $ rac{1}{4}$ by 5, resulting in $ rac{5}{20}$. Now we have $ rac{8}{20}$ and $ rac{5}{20}$, and we can finally add them! Adding the numerators (8 + 5) gives us 13, and the denominator stays the same (20). So, the fraction of money spent on biscuits and plantain chips is $ rac{13}{20}$. We're one step closer to solving the puzzle!

Drinks and the Remaining Fraction

Okay, so we know our shopper spent $ rac{13}{20}$ of his pocket money on biscuits and plantain chips. But what about the drinks? The problem tells us he spent the remainder on drinks. This is a crucial piece of information! The