Question

Santa bought \[\dfrac{2}{5}\] metre of ribbon and Lalita bought \[\dfrac{3}{4}\]metre of ribbon. What is the total length of the ribbon they bought?

Answer 1

Hint: We are given two lengths of the ribbon and we need to find the total length of the ribbon. Now, in order to find the total length of the ribbon, we need to add both the lengths. We see that we are given the lengths of Fractions. Now, to add the fractions, we need to take the LCM of both the denominators and then solve for the numerator individually. We have to find the total length of both the persons, so we need to add them together.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Length of ribbon bought by Santa \[ = \dfrac{2}{5}\]metre
Length of ribbon bought by Lalita \[ = \dfrac{3}{4}\]metre
Total Length of the ribbon bought by them \[ = \]
Length of ribbon bought by Santa + Length of ribbon bought by Lalita
\[ = \dfrac{2}{5}metre + \dfrac{3}{4}metre\]
\[ = (\dfrac{2}{5} + \dfrac{3}{4})metre\]
\[ = \dfrac{{2 \times 4 + 3 \times 5}}{{20}}metre\]
\[ = \dfrac{{8 + 15}}{{20}}metre\]
\[ = \dfrac{{23}}{{20}}metre\]
\[\therefore \] Total length of the ribbon bought by them \[ = \dfrac{{23}}{{20}}metre\]

Note: We are given the lengths of the ribbon in fractions. We can convert them into decimals as well and then add them individually. We didn’t convert them into decimals but solved them in fractions only. While adding the fractions, we need to make sure that first of all we need to divide the denominator(which we wrote as the LCM of two denominators) and then multiply it with the numerator of that term. We usually forget to divide the LCM with the Denominators of both the terms.