Hi everyone! During yesterdays math class we were given a word problem about parks in New York City. The parks were Carol Gardens and Flatbush. People think that the children of New York City should get a place to play, so they decided to make some lots have a playground and some blacktop so that children were able to play blacktop games, like basketball for instance.Both places have the same area, 100 M by 50 M. 3/4 of the lot will be playground and 2/5 of the playground will be hardtop. Our goal is to find out which park will have more hardtop. Note that both lots are rectangular.
Flatbush
The image above is a representation of the Flatbush lot. 2/5 of the whole lot is the playground. 
Above is a representation of how much of the lot will be playground. Now 3/4 of that 2/5 will blacktop.
We're trying to find how many times 3/4 will fit into 2/5 evenly, since 2/5 of the lot is playground and 3/4 of that (2/5) is hardtop. To do so we divide 2/5 by 3/4.
One of the most easiest ways to compare fractions is to divide the numerator by the denominator, or finding the decimal. 8 divided by 15 is 0.53 repeated.Carol Gardens
Above is a representation of Carol Gardens. As you can see it is identical to Flatbush. 3/4 of the whole lot is the playground.
2/5 of the playground (3/4 of the whole lot) is hardtop.
The darker shaded area is the hardtop. We're trying to find how many times 2/5 can fit into 3/4 evenly, because 3/4 of the lot is the playground and 2/5 of that is the hardtop. To do that you divide 3/4 by 2/5.
1.875 is 15/8 in decimal form.Which brings us back to our main goal... Which park gets more blacktop than the other?
As mentioned previously, one of the easiest ways to compare fractions is to convert the fraction into a decimal. Flatbush gets 8/15 of hardtop, or 0.53 repeated. Carol Gardens gets 15/8 of hardtop, or 1.875. So, Carol Gardens gets more hardtop than Flatbush. I hope this helps and that you're all well! (:
Please feel welcome to comment if I've made a mistake, or have done this word problem incorrectly!
The next scribe will be Nikki.
i like how you explained the problem with pictures and the way your explanation was easy to understand. i didn't find any mistakes except that Carol Gardens is spelled with two "R"s (according to my book), but that doesn't really matter. great job linda! :)
April 26, 2009 at 4:50 PM
WOW! Good Job Linda! I completely understand now. Your explanation made it seem so simple and easy. Gizzle pointed out your mistake so I have nothing. Good job and again and yes, you explanation is easy to understand!
-karebear ;P
April 26, 2009 at 7:52 PM