Kate had $6$ chocolate bars. She ate $1 \frac{1}{2}$ chocolate bars and gave $1 \frac{3}{4}$ chocolate bars to Meiling. How many chocolate bars did Kate have left?

Full solution

Q. Kate had

6

chocolate bars. She ate

1 \frac{1}{2}

chocolate bars and gave

1 \frac{3}{4}

chocolate bars to Meiling. How many chocolate bars did Kate have left?

Subtract from total: Now, subtract the amount Kate ate and the amount she gave to Meiling from the total number of chocolate bars she had. $\newline$ Kate had $6$ chocolate bars. $\newline$ She ate $\frac{3}{2}$ bars and gave away $\frac{7}{4}$ bars. $\newline$ $6 - \frac{3}{2} - \frac{7}{4}$ $\newline$ First, find a common denominator for the fractions, which is $4$ . $\newline$ $\frac{3}{2} = \frac{6}{4}$ $\newline$ So, $6 - \frac{6}{4} - \frac{7}{4}$
Kate's chocolate bars: Now, subtract the fractions from the whole number. Convert $6$ to $\frac{24}{4}$ to subtract the fractions. $\frac{24}{4} - \frac{6}{4} - \frac{7}{4} = \frac{24 - 6 - 7}{4}$ $= \frac{11}{4}$ But wait, that's not right, I subtracted wrong.