Skyler is making cookies to donate to the bake sale at his local grocery store. He makes 2/3

of the cookies on a given night and has only enough time to decorate 1/4
of them. What is the fractional portion remaining that he still needs to decorate?
Responses

3/7

11/12

5/12

1/2

1 answer

To solve this problem, we first need to identify the total fraction of cookies Skyler makes and the fraction that he decorates.

  1. Fraction of cookies made: Skyler makes \( \frac{2}{3} \) of the cookies.
  2. Fraction of cookies decorated: Skyler decorates \( \frac{1}{4} \) of the cookies he made.

To find the actual fraction of the cookies that he has decorated, we will multiply the two fractions:

\[ \text{Fraction of cookies decorated} = \left(\frac{2}{3}\right) \times \left(\frac{1}{4}\right) = \frac{2 \times 1}{3 \times 4} = \frac{2}{12} = \frac{1}{6} \]

Now, we need to determine the fractional portion of the cookies that are still left to decorate. We have:

  • Total cookies made: \( \frac{2}{3} \)
  • Cookies decorated: \( \frac{1}{6} \)

To find the remaining portion that still needs to be decorated, we subtract the fraction decorated from the total fraction made:

\[ \text{Fraction remaining to decorate} = \frac{2}{3} - \frac{1}{6} \]

To perform this subtraction, we need a common denominator. The least common multiple of 3 and 6 is 6. We can rewrite \( \frac{2}{3} \) as:

\[ \frac{2}{3} = \frac{4}{6} \]

Now we can subtract:

\[ \frac{4}{6} - \frac{1}{6} = \frac{3}{6} = \frac{1}{2} \]

Thus, the fractional portion remaining that Skyler still needs to decorate is

\(\frac{1}{2}\).

So, the correct response is:

\[ \frac{1}{2} \]