Susie is baking a cake that requires 1/4 cup of vegetable oil per batch. Since her family reunion is coming up, she wants to bake 1 and 1/3 times the usual recipe to make a larger cake. How much vegetable oil will she need to use for the expanded recipe?
To find out, Susie calculates the amount of oil by multiplying the original amount required (1/4 cup) by the scale factor of the recipe (1 and 1/3 times).
First, Susie converts 1 and 1/3 to an improper fraction so it's easier to multiply. 1 and 1/3 can be written as 4/3 because 1 is 3/3 and 1/3 added to that is 4/3.
Now, Susie multiplies:
(4/3) * (1/4)
To multiply fractions, she multiplies the numerators and then the denominators:
4 * 1 = 4 (numerator)
3 * 4 = 12 (denominator)
Putting it back into fraction form gives Susie:
4/12
Susie knows this fraction can be simplified by dividing both the numerator and the denominator by their greatest common divisor, which is 4:
4 ÷ 4 = 1 (numerator)
12 ÷ 4 = 3 (denominator)
Now she sees that the simplified fraction is:
1/3
Therefore, Susie will need to use 1/3 cup of vegetable oil for her larger cake.
A story problem for 1 and 1/3 times 1/4
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