Rita's Marbles

[nycmathguy]

Rita has 3 boxes of x marbles. She decided to distribute marbles to her local area friends this way:

1/3 of the marblesfrom box A.

1/2 of the marbles from box B.

1/4 of the marbles from box C.

Create an equation that represents the total number of marbles that Rita gave away.

Let me see.

Let M = total marbles Rita gave away.

M = (x/3) + (x/2) + (x/4)

LCD = 12

M = 4x + 6x + 3x

M = 13x

You say?

 

[Country Boy]

I say "Seriously? Did you think about that answer at all? She had three boxes of marbles, each with x marbles so she had 3x marbles. You are saying she gave away more than four times as many marbles as she had!"

You forgot the denominator of the fractions!
Yes, the least common denominator of 2, 3, and 4 is 12 so M= x/2+ x/3+ x/4= 6x/12+ 4x/12+ 3x/12= 13x/12, slightly more than the number of marbles in one box.

 

[nycmathguy]

I say "Seriously? Did you think about that answer at all? She had three boxes of marbles, each with x marbles so she had 3x marbles. You are saying she gave away more than four times as many marbles as she had!"

You forgot the denominator of the fractions!
Yes, the least common denominator of 2, 3, and 4 is 12 so M= x/2+ x/3+ x/4= 6x/12+ 4x/12+ 3x/12= 13x/12, slightly more than the number of marbles in one box.

Yes, you are right. M = 3x/12 is right.