In the stock market, changes in value used to be indicated by fractions, which represented portions of $1. If a stock had a value of $11.50, write and evaluate an addition expression to find how much the stock is worth after an increase of 1 /4. How do you know that is the correct expression?

Malik earns an average of 4 1/ 2 points on his daily quizzes. Near the end of the quarter, his average decreases by 3/ 4 point. Write and evaluate a subtraction expression to find his current quiz grade average.

1 answer

To find out how much the stock is worth after an increase of \( \frac{1}{4} \) when it currently has a value of \( 11.50 \), we can set up and evaluate the following addition expression:

\[ 11.50 + \frac{1}{4} \]

To evaluate this expression, we first need to convert \( \frac{1}{4} \) into a decimal. Since \( \frac{1}{4} = 0.25 \), we can rewrite the expression as:

\[ 11.50 + 0.25 \]

Now, we can add these two values:

\[ 11.50 + 0.25 = 11.75 \]

Therefore, the stock is worth $11.75 after the increase. We know this is the correct expression because we are simply adding the increase of \( \frac{1}{4} \) (or \( 0.25 \)) to the original stock value of \( 11.50 \).


Next, for Malik's quiz average, we know that he earns an average of \( 4 \frac{1}{2} \) points and that his average decreases by \( \frac{3}{4} \) points. First, we can rewrite \( 4 \frac{1}{2} \) as a mixed number, which is:

\[ 4 \frac{1}{2} = 4.5 \]

Now we set up the subtraction expression:

\[ 4.5 - \frac{3}{4} \]

To evaluate this expression, we need to convert \( \frac{3}{4} \) into a decimal, which is \( 0.75 \). Thus, we can rewrite the expression as:

\[ 4.5 - 0.75 \]

Now we subtract:

\[ 4.5 - 0.75 = 3.75 \]

Therefore, Malik's current quiz grade average is 3.75 points. We know this is the correct expression because we are subtracting the amount by which his average decreased (\( \frac{3}{4} \)) from his original average of \( 4.5 \).