Question

Adam works at a bakery. He uses $\frac{1}{8}$of his floor supply to make bread and $\frac{3}{4}$of his flour supply to make other baked goods. If Adam used 21 pounds of flour, how flour did he have in his supply?

Answer 1

Adam uses 1/8 + 3/4 of his flour supply in total, to make the goods he needs. The LCM between 4 and 8 is 8.

So:

$\begin{gathered} \frac{1}{8}+\frac{3}{4}= \\ \frac{1}{8}+\frac{6}{8}=\frac{7}{8} \\ \end{gathered}$

7/8 of the total is 21 pounds. Let the total be x.

$\begin{gathered} \frac{7}{8}*x=21 \\ 7x=21*8 \\ 7x=168 \\ x=\frac{168}{7} \\ x=24 \end{gathered}$

Adam has a total of 24 pounds of flour in his supply.