Question

Maura and Stacy are collecting clothes for a clothing drive. Stacy collected 1/2 as many clothes as Maura did. If Maura collected 2 1/5 bags of clothes, how many bags of clothes did Stacy collect?

Write your answer as a fraction or as a whole or mixed number.

bags

Answer 1

Maura collected \( 2 \frac{1}{5} \) bags of clothes. To work with this number, we can convert it to an improper fraction.

First, convert \( 2 \frac{1}{5} \) to an improper fraction:
\[
2 \frac{1}{5} = \frac{2 \times 5 + 1}{5} = \frac{10 + 1}{5} = \frac{11}{5}
\]

Now, we know that Stacy collected \( \frac{1}{2} \) as many clothes as Maura. Thus, we calculate the amount of clothes Stacy collected:
\[
\text{Stacy's collection} = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{11}{5} = \frac{11}{10}
\]

Now, \( \frac{11}{10} \) can also be expressed as a mixed number:
\[
\frac{11}{10} = 1 \frac{1}{10}
\]

Therefore, the number of bags of clothes that Stacy collected is:
\[
\boxed{\frac{11}{10}}
\]
or as a mixed number:
\[
\boxed{1 \frac{1}{10}}
\]