In Sara's class, 2/5 of the students ride a bus, and 1/3 ride a car to school, while the rest walk. To find the fraction of students who walk to school, you must determine the total fraction that ride either a bus or a car and subtract this from the whole. To find the fraction of students who use a bus or car to get to school, add the fractions of students who ride a bus (2/5) and those who ride a car (1/3). To add these fractions, you need a common denominator, which, in this case, could be 15. Converting to the common denominator, we get: Students who ride the bus: \( \frac{2}{5} = \frac{2 \times 3}{5 \times 3} = \frac{6}{15} \) Students who ride a car: \( \frac{1}{3} = \frac{1 \times 5}{3 \times 5} = \frac{5}{15} \) Now, add the fractions: \( \frac{6}{15} + \frac{5}{15} = \frac{11}{15} \) This means that 11/15 of the students ride a bus or a car to school. To find the fraction of students who walk to school, subtract the fraction that rides a bus or car from 1, since the total class represents one whole: \( 1 - \frac{11}{15} = \frac{15}{15} - \frac{11}{15} = \frac{4}{15} \) So, 4/15 of the students walk to school. For visualization, you can draw a diagram of a circle (representing the whole class) divided into 15 equal parts. Shade 6 parts for bus riders and an additional 5 parts for car riders. The remaining 4 unshaded parts represent the students who walk to school. To summarize: - The fraction of students who ride a bus or car is 11/15. - The fraction of students who walk to school is 4/15.

To find out the fraction of students who walk to school, we first need to calculate the combined fraction of those who ride a bus or a car. We add \( \frac{2}{5} \), the fraction of students who ride a bus, to \( \frac{1}{3} \), the fraction of students who ride a car.

First, we find a common denominator for the two fractions, which is the smallest number that both denominators (5 and 3) can divide into without a remainder. In this case, it is 15. We convert both fractions to have this common denominator.

For students riding the bus:

\[ \frac{2}{5} = \frac{2 \times 3}{5 \times 3} = \frac{6}{15} \]

For students riding a car:

\[ \frac{1}{3} = \frac{1 \times 5}{3 \times 5} = \frac{5}{15} \]

Next, we add these two fractions:

\[ \frac{6}{15} + \frac{5}{15} = \frac{11}{15} \]

Now that we have the fraction representing the students who ride a bus or a car, we can subtract it from 1 (the whole) to find the fraction of students who walk to school:

\[ 1 - \frac{11}{15} = \frac{15}{15} - \frac{11}{15} = \frac{4}{15} \]

Therefore, \( \frac{4}{15} \) of the students in Sara's class walk to school.

Extra: The numerical value of a fraction represents a part of a whole number of objects, or in this case, a group of students. To work with fractions, it's often necessary to find a common denominator, which allows you to add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions easily. When you need to combine or compare fractions with different denominators, converting them to equivalent fractions with the same denominator is essential. This process is similar to finding a common language between two people who speak different languages before they can communicate effectively.

Adding and subtracting fractions are critical skills in math, and understanding these processes helps in many practical situations like measuring ingredients for recipes, dividing resources, or analyzing data.

After manipulating the fractions to find the one representing the walkers, the concept illustrated is that of a remainder or difference, which in this case reveals the portion of the class not tallied by the bus-riding or car-riding students.

Visual aids, like a circle or pie chart divided into equal parts, can help to grasp the concept of fractions and their addition or subtraction since they clearly show parts of a whole. This visualization can be a powerful tool for understanding and remembering how to work with fractions.