Lucy sang 4 songs. Every song was 5/8 minutes long.

2 1/2 is correct.

thanks!

2.5 or 5/2 or 2 1/2 are all in simplest form

the "mixed fraction" version is probably the least useful form of writing a fraction
even though it seems to be the favourite of many authors.
I don't understand why, since when doing any operation with mixed fractions,
one of the first steps is to change it either into a decimal or an "improper" fraction
e.g. 4 3/5 + 2 1/2
= 23/5 + 5/2
= 46/10 + 25/10 = 71/10 or 7.1

Okay, thanks too!

To calculate the total time Lucy sang, you correctly multiplied the length of each song, which is 5/8 minutes, by the total number of songs, which is 4:

(5/8) x 4 = 20/8

Next, to simplify the fraction, you noted that 20 is divisible by both 2 and 8. By dividing both the numerator and denominator by 4, we can simplify the fraction further:

(20/8) ÷ 4 = 5/2

So, in simplest form, Lucy sang for 5/2 minutes. You also mentioned that this can be written as 2 and 1/2, which is correct.