Question

One evening, a restaurant served a total of 1/2 of a loaf of wheat bread and 4 7/10 loaves of white bread. How many loaves were served in all?

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

Answer 1

To determine the total amount of bread served, we need to add the amounts of wheat bread and white bread together.

First, we convert \( \frac{1}{2} \) into a decimal or a fraction with a common denominator to make addition simpler. Since the white bread is given as a mixed number, we can convert \( 4\frac{7}{10} \) into an improper fraction.

1. Convert the mixed number \( 4\frac{7}{10} \) to an improper fraction:
\[
4\frac{7}{10} = \frac{4 \times 10 + 7}{10} = \frac{40 + 7}{10} = \frac{47}{10}
\]

2. Now, we need to add \( \frac{1}{2} \) (wheat bread) and \( \frac{47}{10} \) (white bread). To do this, we need a common denominator. The denominators here are 2 and 10, and the least common multiple of 2 and 10 is 10.

3. Convert \( \frac{1}{2} \) to a fraction with a denominator of 10:
\[
\frac{1}{2} = \frac{1 \times 5}{2 \times 5} = \frac{5}{10}
\]

4. Now we can add the two fractions:
\[
\frac{5}{10} + \frac{47}{10} = \frac{5 + 47}{10} = \frac{52}{10}
\]

5. Simplify \( \frac{52}{10} \):
\[
\frac{52 \div 2}{10 \div 2} = \frac{26}{5}
\]

6. Convert \( \frac{26}{5} \) to a mixed number:
\[
26 \div 5 = 5 \quad \text{remainder } 1 \quad \text{so } \frac{26}{5} = 5\frac{1}{5}
\]

Thus, the total amount of bread served in all is \( \frac{26}{5} \) or \( 5\frac{1}{5} \) loaves.