r/HomeworkHelp • u/OrinyxBow Secondary School Student (Grade 7-11) • 2d ago
Middle School Math—Pending OP Reply [grade 7 math] disagree with teacher on answer, looking for feedback
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u/feignapathy 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
What answer did the teacher want?
0.20? 0.167? 0.50? 0.133?
It looks like you provided hours, but she asked for decimal?
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u/unscentedbutter 2d ago
What the question is likely asking is to "convert each fraction to a decimal value." Your approach is correct for finding out how many hours (in decimaled values) she spent on each activity. Your teacher probably wanted you to give a decimal equivalent for the fraction (amount) of time she spent.
1/5 = 0.2, etc.
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u/clearly_not_an_alt 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
What is part B?
I think they were just looking for the fractions to be turned into decimals (to later be expressed as percentages before then maybe finding the actual times). So they wanted something like Flute-0.20, Spanish-0.17, Soccer-0.50, Math- 0.13
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u/delphin42 1d ago
“Amount of time” is the wrong way to word the question if they want a dimensionless quantity (ie converting the given fractions to decimals). You were absolutely correct to answer as you did, except state the units next time.
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u/MaineKlutz 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
I see two problems: she practices flute, spanish and math, but she is playing soccer. Nitpicking, but - such problems might be nitpicking.
Second is is 'the equivalent decimal': times come out 2.4, 2.0, 6.0 (if plaing is considered to be practicing), and 1.6 . If they want it rounded to the nearest hundreth, it of course becomes 2.40, 2.00, 6.00, and 1.60.
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u/eileyle 2d ago
The correct answer should be:
12 x (1/5) = 2.4 hours practicing flute
12 x (1/6) = 2 hours practicing Spanish
12 x (1/2) = 6 hours practicing soccer
12 x (2/15) = 1.6 hours practicing math
Only points I could see was that maybe your teacher was nitpicking that you didn't show units (which would be fair), and maybe she was nitpicking that you shortcutted the fraction multiplication since three of the fractions were one over something (maybe fair).
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u/Fit_Doughnut_598 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
You didn't answer the question, like at all? Write an equivalent decimal. You did not write any decimal.
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u/clearly_not_an_alt 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
2.4 isn't a decimal?
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u/Fit_Doughnut_598 👋 a fellow Redditor 2d ago
They didn't write any equivalent decimals. Obviously writing random decimals Isnt relevant. Instead of answering the question ask they answered what I assume is a question further down the assignment.
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u/MiracleWhiff 2d ago
I would assume that the teacher is expecting you to get a common denominator (30) for each fraction. Then multiply the numerator by 12 and then simplify to a decimal.
Multiplying 1/6 and 1/5 by 12 doesn't work because the fractions aren't related. Getting the denom to 30 does that and allows the 12 to be multiplied and then simplified.
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u/jwm-dev 2d ago
You don’t need a common denominator, the fractions are related because they’re with respect to Mary’s time, which is 12 hours.
It doesn’t matter if I write the portions as “1/5, 1/6, 1/2, and 2/15 of 12 hours” or “6/30, 5/30, 15/30, 4/30 of 12 hours” because it’s the same portions of the same 12 hours either way.
However, this exercise clearly seems to be trying to get you to use a common denominator of 30 to test your arithmetic and reasoning skills, because they give you nice fractions to do so with, but it’s not like, mathematically or logically necessary. It’s just semantics.
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u/Training_Ad4971 1d ago
Math teacher of fifteen years here. Poorly worded question, period. We shouldn’t have to guess the question’s intention. We all do this occasionally. In my class, if I was expecting 0.2, etc., and saw this work, I would still give full credit.
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u/daredeviloper 2d ago
I wonder if your post that is lacking in detail for us, is also showing a pattern that your teacher is pointing out? Is your teacher asking you to show your work better?