Question

Nora's car weighs 6 2/3 tons and Ling's car weighs 2 1/4 tons. How much more does Nora's car weigh than Ling's car?

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

tons

Answer 1

To find out how much more Nora's car weighs than Ling's car, we need to subtract Ling's weight from Nora's weight.

First, we convert the mixed numbers to improper fractions:

1. Nora's car weighs 6 2/3 tons:
\[
6 \frac{2}{3} = \frac{6 \times 3 + 2}{3} = \frac{18 + 2}{3} = \frac{20}{3}
\]

2. Ling's car weighs 2 1/4 tons:
\[
2 \frac{1}{4} = \frac{2 \times 4 + 1}{4} = \frac{8 + 1}{4} = \frac{9}{4}
\]

Now, we need to subtract these two fractions:
\[
\frac{20}{3} - \frac{9}{4}
\]

To do this, we need a common denominator. The least common multiple of 3 and 4 is 12.

Next, we convert each fraction to have the denominator of 12:

For \(\frac{20}{3}\):
\[
\frac{20}{3} = \frac{20 \times 4}{3 \times 4} = \frac{80}{12}
\]

For \(\frac{9}{4}\):
\[
\frac{9}{4} = \frac{9 \times 3}{4 \times 3} = \frac{27}{12}
\]

Now we can subtract:
\[
\frac{80}{12} - \frac{27}{12} = \frac{80 - 27}{12} = \frac{53}{12}
\]

Finally, we can convert \(\frac{53}{12}\) into a mixed number:
\[
\frac{53}{12} = 4 \frac{5}{12}
\]

Thus, Nora's car weighs \(4 \frac{5}{12}\) tons more than Ling's car.

The final answer is:
\[
\boxed{4 \frac{5}{12}} \text{ tons}
\]