The Nelson family 1/4 of a gallon of orange juice on Saturday and 2/5 of a gallon of orange juice on Sunday morning how much orange juice did they drink in all?

1 answer

To find out how much orange juice the Nelson family drank in total over the weekend, we can add the amounts they consumed on Saturday and Sunday.

  1. Amount consumed on Saturday: \( \frac{1}{4} \) gallon
  2. Amount consumed on Sunday: \( \frac{2}{5} \) gallon

To add these fractions, we need to find a common denominator. The denominators here are 4 and 5. The least common multiple of 4 and 5 is 20.

Next, we convert each fraction to have a denominator of 20:

  1. For \( \frac{1}{4} \): \[ \frac{1}{4} = \frac{1 \times 5}{4 \times 5} = \frac{5}{20} \]

  2. For \( \frac{2}{5} \): \[ \frac{2}{5} = \frac{2 \times 4}{5 \times 4} = \frac{8}{20} \]

Now we can add the two fractions: \[ \frac{5}{20} + \frac{8}{20} = \frac{5 + 8}{20} = \frac{13}{20} \]

Thus, the Nelson family drank a total of \( \frac{13}{20} \) gallon of orange juice over the weekend.