Justin's car weighs 4 3/4 tons and Braden's car weighs 2 1/12 tons. How much more does Justin's car weigh than Braden's car?

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

1 answer

To find out how much more Justin's car weighs than Braden's car, we first need to convert their weights into improper fractions so we can perform the subtraction easily.

  1. Convert Justin's car weight (4 3/4 tons): \[ 4 \frac{3}{4} = \frac{4 \times 4 + 3}{4} = \frac{16 + 3}{4} = \frac{19}{4} \text{ tons} \]

  2. Convert Braden's car weight (2 1/12 tons): \[ 2 \frac{1}{12} = \frac{2 \times 12 + 1}{12} = \frac{24 + 1}{12} = \frac{25}{12} \text{ tons} \]

  3. Now, we want to find how much more Justin's car weighs than Braden's car by subtracting Braden’s weight from Justin’s: \[ \frac{19}{4} - \frac{25}{12} \]

  4. To perform the subtraction, we need a common denominator. The least common multiple of 4 and 12 is 12. We will convert \(\frac{19}{4}\) to a fraction with a denominator of 12: \[ \frac{19}{4} = \frac{19 \times 3}{4 \times 3} = \frac{57}{12} \]

  5. Now we can subtract: \[ \frac{57}{12} - \frac{25}{12} = \frac{57 - 25}{12} = \frac{32}{12} \]

  6. Next, we simplify \(\frac{32}{12}\): \[ \frac{32}{12} = \frac{8}{3} \]

  7. Convert \(\frac{8}{3}\) to a mixed number: \[ 8 \div 3 = 2 \quad \text{remainder} : 2, \text{ so } \frac{8}{3} = 2 \frac{2}{3} \]

Thus, Justin's car weighs \( \boxed{2 \frac{2}{3}} \) tons more than Braden's car.