Question

Molly's lemon cookie recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar. How much sugar would Molly use to make 3 1/3 batches of cookies?

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

Answer 1

To find out how much sugar Molly would use for 3 \( \frac{1}{3} \) batches of cookies, we start with the amount of sugar needed for one batch, which is 5 cups.

First, we need to express 3 \( \frac{1}{3} \) as an improper fraction:

\[
3 \frac{1}{3} = 3 + \frac{1}{3} = \frac{9}{3} + \frac{1}{3} = \frac{10}{3}
\]

Now, we can calculate the total amount of sugar needed for \( \frac{10}{3} \) batches:

\[
\text{Sugar for } \frac{10}{3} \text{ batches} = 5 \text{ cups/batch} \times \frac{10}{3} \text{ batches}
\]

This can be calculated as follows:

\[
= 5 \times \frac{10}{3} = \frac{50}{3}
\]

Now, converting \( \frac{50}{3} \) into a mixed number:

\[
50 \div 3 = 16 \quad \text{(remainder 2)}
\]

This means:

\[
\frac{50}{3} = 16 \frac{2}{3}
\]

Thus, Molly would use \( \frac{50}{3} \) cups or \( 16 \frac{2}{3} \) cups of sugar to make 3 \( \frac{1}{3} \) batches of cookies.

The final answer is:

\[
\frac{50}{3} \text{ cups of sugar} \quad \text{or} \quad 16 \frac{2}{3} \text{ cups of sugar}
\]