Mr. Smith has an online cooking show. Before he films an episode about baking the perfect pound cake, he prepares his ingredients. His recipe calls for $2 \frac{1}{2}$ cups of sugar for the cake and $1 \frac{1}{4}$ cups of sugar for the vanilla glaze. How many $\frac{1}{4}$ -cup scoops of sugar does he need? $\newline$ Write your answer as a whole number, fraction, or mixed number. Simplify any fractions. $\newline$ ____ scoops

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Q. Mr. Smith has an online cooking show. Before he films an episode about baking the perfect pound cake, he prepares his ingredients. His recipe calls for

2 \frac{1}{2}

cups of sugar for the cake and

1 \frac{1}{4}

cups of sugar for the vanilla glaze. How many

\frac{1}{4}

-cup scoops of sugar does he need?

\newline

Write your answer as a whole number, fraction, or mixed number. Simplify any fractions.

\newline

____ scoops

Convert to Improper Fractions: Convert mixed numbers to improper fractions for easier calculation. $2 \frac{1}{2}$ cups of sugar becomes $\frac{5}{2}$ cups, and $1 \frac{1}{4}$ cups becomes $\frac{5}{4}$ cups.
Add Amounts Together: Add the two amounts of sugar together. $\frac{5}{2} + \frac{5}{4} = \left(\frac{10}{4}\right) + \left(\frac{5}{4}\right) = \frac{15}{4}$ cups of sugar in total.
Convert to Scoops: Convert total cups of sugar to $\frac{1}{4}$ -cup scoops. Since $1$ cup = $4$ scoops of $\frac{1}{4}$ cup, then $\frac{15}{4}$ cups = $\left(\frac{15}{4}\right) \times 4 = 15$ scoops.