Reducing fractions, converting fractions to decimals
Calculators
Column graphs (bar charts)
Recently the College organized a Fun Walk from Kolonia to Palikir. The walkers started from Palm Terrace in Kolonia at 6:30 A.M. on a sunny Saturday morning. Team T3 reached Sekere School at 7:18 A.M, the Dolon Community store at 7:40 A.M., the FSM Capital at 7:48 A.M., finally arriving at the Palikir national campus at 8:14 A.M.
| 1 | How many minutes did it take for Team T3 to go from Palm Terrace to Sekere school? | ___ |
| 2 | How many minutes did it take for Team T3 to go from Sekere School to Dolon Community store? | ___ |
| 3 | How many minutes did it take for Team T3 to go from Dolon Community store to FSM Capital? | ___ |
| 4 | How many minutes did it take for Team T3 to go from FSM Capital to the Palkir National Campus? | ___ |
| 5 | How many total minutes did it take for Team T3 to go from Palm Terrace to the Palkir National Campus? | ___ |
The distant from Palm Terrace to Sekere school is 4.3 kilometers (km).
The distant from Sekere School to Dolon Community store is 1.8 km.
The distant from Dolon Community store to FSM Capital is 0.9 km
The distant from FSM Capital to the Palkir National Campus is 2.4 kilometers.
| 6 | How far is the total distance from Palm Terrace to Sekere School? | ___ |
Speed in the metric system (used by all countries in the world except for Liberia, Burma, and the United States) is expressed in kilometers per hour. The kilometers for each leg of the walk is known, but the time is in minutes not hours. The times will have to be converted to minutes.
One hour = sixty minutes or 1 hour = 60 minutes.
Dividing both sides by 60 minutes results in: 1 hour/60 minutes = 60 minutes/60 minutes
or, after canceling on the right, 1 hour/60 minutes = 1
When one is multiplied by a number, we get the number back again. For example, 2 × 1= 2 and 15 × 1 =15.
We can take the first leg, 48 minutes, and multiply by 1 hour/60 minutes and change only the units of time without changing the length of time because 1 hour/60 minutes is equal to one.
48 minutes × 1 hour/60 minutes= 48/60 hour (the minutes canceled)
Divide the top and bottom by two to reduce to: 24/30.
Then divide by two top and bottom to reduce to 12/15, reduce the top and bottom one more time by dividing the top and bottom by 3 to get 4/5. Divide 4 by 5 to get 0.8 hours.
Fill in the rest of the chart below:
| Leg | Time in minutes |
Minutes divided by 60 |
Reduced fractional hours |
Decimal hours |
|
| From Palm Terrace to Sekere | 48 | 48/60 | 4/5 | 0.8 | |
| 7 | From Sekere to Dolon store | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| 8 | From Dolon store to FSM capital | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| 9 | From FSM Capital to Palikir campus | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| 10 | Total time from Palm Terrace to Palikir campus | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
To determine how fast team T3 went on each leg, divide the distance of each leg in kilometes by the decimal hours for each leg. The first row of the next table is done as an example.
| Leg | Distance in km | Decimal hours |
Speed in km/hr | |
| From Palm Terrace to Sekere | 4.3 | 0.8 | 5.375 | |
| 11 | From Sekere to Dolon store | 1.8 | ___ | ___ |
| 12 | From Dolon store to FSM capital | 0.9 | ___ | ___ |
| 13 | From FSM Capital to Palikir campus | 2.4 | ___ | ___ |
| 14 | From Palm Terrace to Palikir campus | ___(from #6) | ___ | ___ |
| 15 | On what leg was Team T3 the slowest? | ___ |
| 16 | Why might that leg have been the slowest? | ___ |
| 17 | On what leg was Team T3 the fastest? | ___ |
| 18 | Why might that leg have been the fastest? | ___ |
[Instructors option: a column graph ("bar chart") could be made by the students of this data if they know how to do a bar chart]
The (total distance in kilometers)/(total decimal time in hours) is the average speed. The average speed for Team T3 is calculated in the last column of number 14 above.
Team Outer Island covered the total distance in 1 hour and 30 minutes, Team FAO in 1 hour and 55 minutes, and the last stragglers made it to the campus in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Calculate the average speed for each group.
| Team | Time | Distance | Decimal hours |
Speed in km/hr | |
| 19 | Outer Island | 1:30 | ___(from #6) | ___ | ___ |
| 20 | Team T3 | 1:44 | ___(from #6) | ___(from #10) | ___(from #14) |
| 21 | Team FAO | 1:55 | ___(from #6) | ___ | ___ |
| 22 | Stragglers | 2:10 | ___(from #6) | ___ | ___ |
Developed by Dana Lee Ling with the support and funding of a U.S. Department of Education Title III grant and the support of the College of Micronesia - FSM. Notebook material ©1996 College of Micronesia - FSM. For further information on this project, contact dleeling@comfsm.fm Designed and run on Micron Millenia P5 - 133 MHz with 32 MB RAM, Windows 95 OS.