Math Confusion.....Help?

Question

Sam and Mary each owned one-half stock in a printing company. Sam sold 2/3 of his stock to Mary. What fractional part of the printing business does mary now own?

The answer is 7/10. Can someone show to the steps to how this answer is found?

Thanks

And the answer is definitely 7/10. I just need to know the steps, thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Hmm - the answer is NOT 7/10 it is actually 5/6.

2/3 of 1/2 of Sam's stock is 2/3 x 1/2 = 2/6
(multiply across: numerator times numerator, and denominator times denominator)

Add this to Mary's stock: (Mary's 1/2 needs to be changed into 3/6)
3/6 (Mary) + 2/6(Sam's) = 5/6

good luck, hope this helps.

Answer 2

This is a problem in common denominators. Each person owns 1/2, which is the same as 3/6.

Sam sell 2/3 of his stock to Mary. Two thirds of 3/6 is 2/6, so Sam sell 2/6 to Mary. Mary ends up with 5/6 and Sam ends up with 1/6.

Answer 3

Sorry, but the answer is not 7/10, it is 5/6. You get the answer this way:
1-Figure out what 2/3's of 1/2 is (how much stock Sam sold) by multiplying both fractions. 2/3 x 1/2 = 2/6 (multiply top with top and bottom with bottom). 2/6 is reduced to 1/3, so Sam sold 1/3 of the total stock to Mary.
2-Add 1/3 to the 1/2 that Mary already owns. To add, you need a common denominator, which is 6. 1/3 = 2/6; 1/2 = 3/6. So add 2/6 + 3/6 = 5/6. The total stock that Mary ends up owning is 5/6.

Another (and really easy) way to do this is to draw a circle, or "pie". Cut the pie 3 times, and you end up with 6 slices. First, Sam and Mary each own 3 slices. Then, Sam sells 2 of those slices to Mary. Mary ends up with her 3 slices + Sam's 2 slices. That's 5 out of 6 slices, or 5/6.

Hope that helps :)

Answer 4

I'm not sure how you got the answer, and I might have done it wrong, but I got 5/6 as an answer, and checked it.

What you have to do is figure out what 2/3 of 1/2is, which you do by multiplying the fractions together to get 2/6.

Then add 2/6 to 1/2 which when you convert 1/2 into 3/6, you get 5/6.

Another way to figure this out is to do it in terms of 100. Assume that the amount of stock they owned together was 100. Each person owns 50. If you take 2/3 of 50 you get 33. If you add the 50 from Mary to the 33 you get 83.

Doing this in terms of 100 is the same as figuring out the percent. If you convert 5/6 into a decimal, it is .83.

As I said, I may have missed something, but that is how I would do it.

Answer 5

Eh... neither... yet i assume i'm going to choose English. I used to love English extra yet severe college made it boring. -_- yet I nevertheless love writing as a pastime (and hate math, even however i'm no longer undesirable at it) so i'm going to purely say English.