Question

The elephants at the zoo eat 3/4 of a bucket of bananas each day. The zookeeper bought 4 1/2 buckets of bananas. How many days will the bananas last?

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

days

Answer 1

To find out how many days the bananas will last, we need to divide the total amount of bananas by the amount the elephants eat each day.

1. **Total buckets of bananas:** \( 4 \frac{1}{2} = \frac{9}{2} \) buckets
2. **Daily consumption:** \( \frac{3}{4} \) of a bucket per day

Now, we will perform the division:

\[
\text{Number of days} = \frac{\text{Total buckets}}{\text{Daily consumption}} = \frac{\frac{9}{2}}{\frac{3}{4}}
\]

To divide by a fraction, we multiply by its reciprocal:

\[
\frac{9}{2} \div \frac{3}{4} = \frac{9}{2} \times \frac{4}{3}
\]

Now, we can simplify:

\[
= \frac{9 \times 4}{2 \times 3} = \frac{36}{6} = 6
\]

Thus, the bananas will last for **6 days**.