Question

At Winnie's restaurant, one serving of chicken soup is 1 and 1/2 cups. The chef makes 48 cups of soup each night. How many servings of chicken soup are in 48 cups? Explain how you know.

Answer 1

We want to find how many times 1 1/2 cups fits in to 48 cups. In other words, we need to divide 48 by 1 1/2.

To make easier, let's convert 1 1/2 in to a proper fraction:

$1+\frac{1}{2}=\frac{2}{2}+\frac{1}{2}=\frac{3}{2}$

Now we want to divide 48 by 3/2. Remember that divide by a fraction is the same as multiply by the inverse:

$48\div\frac{3}{2}=48\cdot\frac{2}{3}$

Now solve:

$\frac{48\cdot2}{3}=\frac{96}{3}=32$

Thus, the amount of serving with 48 cups is 32.