You are running a fuel economy study. One of the cars you find is blue. It can travel 28 and one half miles28

1/2 miles on 1 and one fourth gallons 1

1/4 gallons of gasoline. Another car is red. It can travel 24 and four fifths

4/5 miles

5 gallon of gasoline. What is the unit rate for miles per gallon for each car? Which car could travel the greater distance on 1 gallon of gasoline?

28.5 miles on 1.25 gallons (blue)

24.8 miles on 5 gallons of gasoline. (red)

As we can see, the blue car travels 28.5 miles on 1.25 gallons. The amount of gallons is less and the amount of miles is more, making the blue car able to travel a much greater distance on 1 gallon. Let's do some math.

1.25/5=.25, which is 1/4

28.5/5=5.7.

Multiply both by four: 1=22.8

The blue car can travel 22.8 miles on 1 gallon of gasoline. And for the red car, we do the same thing:

5/5=1 (1 gallon)

24.8/5=4.96

That means on 1 gallon of gas, the red car doesn't even go 5 miles. It goes 4.96.

The unit rates are going to be distance compared to gallons

Blue car: 22.8 : 1

Red car: 4.96 : 1