Question

The fish tanks at the Richmond Pet Store each hold the same amount of water. Jamie used 8 7/10 pitchers of water to fill 3 tanks. How many pitchers of water did he pour into each tank?

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

Answer 1

To find out how many pitchers of water Jamie poured into each tank, we first need to determine the total amount of water used per tank. Jamie used a total of \( 8 \frac{7}{10} \) pitchers of water to fill 3 tanks.

First, let's convert \( 8 \frac{7}{10} \) into an improper fraction. The mixed number \( 8 \frac{7}{10} \) can be converted as follows:

\[
8 \frac{7}{10} = \frac{8 \times 10 + 7}{10} = \frac{80 + 7}{10} = \frac{87}{10}
\]

Now, we will divide the total amount of water (\( \frac{87}{10} \)) by the number of tanks (3) to find the amount of water per tank:

\[
\text{Water per tank} = \frac{\frac{87}{10}}{3} = \frac{87}{10} \times \frac{1}{3} = \frac{87}{30}
\]

Next, we simplify \( \frac{87}{30} \):

We can convert \( \frac{87}{30} \) into a mixed number. We divide 87 by 30:

- \( 30 \) goes into \( 87 \) two times, since \( 30 \times 2 = 60 \).
- The remainder is \( 87 - 60 = 27 \).

Thus, we can express \( \frac{87}{30} \) as:

\[
\frac{87}{30} = 2 \frac{27}{30}
\]

Now we simplify \( \frac{27}{30} \):

The greatest common divisor (GCD) of 27 and 30 is 3, so we divide both the numerator and the denominator by 3:

\[
\frac{27 \div 3}{30 \div 3} = \frac{9}{10}
\]

Therefore, the simplified form of \( \frac{87}{30} \) is:

\[
2 \frac{9}{10}
\]

Thus, Jamie poured \( 2 \frac{9}{10} \) pitchers of water into each tank.

The final answer is:

\[
\boxed{2 \frac{9}{10}}
\]