To find out how much sugar Ms. Johnson used when she baked the birthday cake, we need to calculate half of the amount of sugar she had in the canister.
The amount of sugar in the canister is \( \frac{7}{8} \) cups.
Step 1: Calculate half of \( \frac{7}{8} \)
To find half of \( \frac{7}{8} \), we multiply \( \frac{7}{8} \) by \( \frac{1}{2} \):
\[ \text{Amount of sugar used} = \frac{7}{8} \times \frac{1}{2} \]
Step 2: Multiply the fractions
When multiplying fractions, you multiply the numerators together and the denominators together:
\[ \frac{7 \times 1}{8 \times 2} = \frac{7}{16} \]
Conclusion
Ms. Johnson used \( \frac{7}{16} \) cups of sugar to bake the birthday cake.