Solve: 1/4 × (1/3 + 1/2) - Mixed Fraction Operations

Question

14(13+12)= ? \frac{1}{4}\cdot\big(\frac{1}{3}+\frac{1}{2}\big)=\text{ ?}

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Solve the following expression
00:04 Solve the parentheses first
00:08 Multiply by the denominators in order to determine the common denominator
00:22 Make sure to multiply both the numerator and denominator
00:39 Calculate the parentheses
00:53 When multiplying fractions, multiply the numerator by the numerator and the denominator by the denominator
01:00 This is the solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Let's simplify this expression while following the order of operations, which states that exponents come before multiplication and division, which come before addition and subtraction, and that parentheses come before all else.

In the given expression, there is a term in parentheses that needs to be multiplied, so we'll start by simplifying the expression within these parentheses. We'll perform the addition of fractions within this expression, which we'll do by expanding the fractions to their minimal common denominator which is 6 (since it's the minimal common multiple of both fraction denominators in the expression - both 2 and 3), and performing the addition operation in the fraction's numerator.

We know by how much to multiply each of the fraction's numerators when expanding the fractions by answering the question "by how much did we multiply the current denominator to get the common denominator?". After that, we'll simplify the expression in the fraction's numerator:

14(13+12)=1412+136=142+36=1456 \frac{1}{4}\cdot\big(\frac{1}{3}+\frac{1}{2}\big)= \\ \frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{1\cdot2+1\cdot3}{6}= \\ \frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{2+3}{6}= \\ \frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{5}{6} \\ When simplifying the expression we got in the fraction's numerator, we must remember that, according to the order of operations mentioned above, multiplication comes before addition.

We'll continue and perform the multiplication of fractions in the expression we got in the last step, remembering that multiplication of fractions is performed by multiplying numerator by numerator and denominator by denominator while keeping the original fraction line:

1456=1546=524 \frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{5}{6}= \\ \frac{1\cdot5}{4\cdot6}= \\ \frac{5}{24}

To summarise:

14(13+12)=1456=524 \frac{1}{4}\cdot\big(\frac{1}{3}+\frac{1}{2}\big)= \\ \frac{1}{4}\cdot\frac{5}{6} = \\ \frac{5}{24}

Therefore the correct answer is answer C.

Answer

5/24