Jane had a bottle filled with juice. At first, Jane drank 1/5 the 1/4, followed by 1/3. Jane checked how much juice was left in the bottle: there was 2/3 of a cup left. How much juice was in the bottle originally?

2 Answers
Sep 30, 2016

Bottle originally had 5/3 or 1 2/3 cups off juice.

Explanation:

As Jane first drank 1/5, then 1/4 and then 1/3 and GCD of denominators 5, 4 and 3 is 60

Let us assume there were 60 units of juice.

Jane first drank 60/5=12 units, so 60-12=48 units were left

then she drank 48/4=12 units, and 48-12=36 were left

and then she drank 36/3=12 units,

and 36-12=24 units left

As 24 units are 2/3 cup

each unit must be 2/3xx1/24 cup and

60 units with which Jane started are equivalent to

2/3xx1/24xx60=2/3xx1/(2xx2xx2xx3)xx2xx2xx3xx5

cancel2/cancel3xx1/(cancel2xxcancel2xxcancel2xx3)xxcancel2xxcancel2xxcancel3xx5

= 5/3

Hence bottle originally had 5/3 or 1 2/3 cups off juice.

Oct 3, 2016

Based on the stated assumption:

"1 bottle"= 3 1/13" cups"

I chose the presentation to show the way of thinking when doing algebra.

Explanation:

color(blue)("Assumption:")

color(blue)("The fractions are related to a full bottle each time")

color(blue)("Dr Cawas has opted for the different interpretation of")

color(blue)( 1-[1/3xx1/4xx1/5]" of a bottle left giving a different answer")

'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
color(blue)("To determine how much of the bottle was drunk as a fraction")

Total drank -> 1/(color(red)(5))+1/(color(red)(4))+1/(color(red)(3))

Consider the denominators. I chose to do it this way:

color(red)(3xx4xx5)=60

Convert all the denominators into 60^("ths")

[1/5 color(magenta)(xx1)] +[1/4color(magenta)(xx1)]+[1/3color(magenta)(xx1)]

[1/5 color(magenta)(xx12/12)] +[1/4color(magenta)(xx15/15)]+[1/3color(magenta)(xx20/20)]

" "12/60" " +" "15/60" "+" "20/60" "->" "(12+15+20)/60

" "color(blue)(= 47/60)

Note that 47 is a prime number so this can not be simplified
'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
color(blue)("Determine the amount not drunk")

(1-47/60)" bottle "=" "2/3" cup"

color(blue)(13/60" bottle "=" "2/3" cup")..........................Equation(1)

,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
color(blue)("Determine volume of original full bottle")

We need to change the 13/60 to 1. To do this we multiply by 60/13

Multiply both sides of Equation(1) by color(green)(60/13)

color(brown)(color(green)(60/13xx)13/60" bottle "=" "color(green)(60/13xx)2/3" cup")

60/60xx13/13" bottle "=" " 3 1/13" cup"

color(blue)("Full bottle had "3 1/13 " cups")