Carcass wrote:
Betty sold  \(\frac{3}{5}\) of her family’s garage sale items. Ernest sold \(\frac{1}{2}\) of the remaining items. What fraction of the family’s garage sale items did Ernest sell?
To solve this question we can use either algebra, or we can 
assign a "nice value" to the number of garage sale items we started with.
Let's choose a number that works well with the given values: 3/5 and 1/2
Let's say there were 
30 items for sale ORIGINALLY 
Betty sold  3/5 of her family’s garage sale items.3/5 of 
30 = (3/5)(
30) = 18
So, Betty sold 
18 items
30 - 18 = 
22So there are now 
12 items REMAINING 
Ernest sold 1/2 of the remaining items.1/2 of 
12 = (1/2)(
12) = 6
So, Ernest sold 
6 items
What fraction of the family’s garage sale items did Ernest sell?6/
30 = 
1/5Answer: 1/5
Cheers, 
Brent