Let's calculate the total amount of time in hours.

Problem:

Ana has to complete a task that requires 2 1/2 hours of work. She needs to spread it out over 5 days. How many hours will she work each day?

Mathematical Representation:

Let's break it down step by step:

1. Convert the mixed number to an improper fraction:
   • 2 1/2 = (2 x 2) + 1/2 = 5/2
2. Multiply the total time by the number of days:
   • (5/2) hours × 5 days = ?

Division of Fractions:

To divide the total time by the number of days, we can use the following formula:

a/b ÷ c/d = ad / bc

In our case, a = 5, b = 2, c = 1, and d = 5.

So, we can calculate the division as follows:

(5/2) ÷ (1/5) = (5 x 5) / (2 x 1) = 25 / 2

Simplifying the Fraction:

To simplify the fraction, we can divide both the numerator and the denominator by their greatest common divisor (GCD), which is 1.

25 ÷ 1 = 25 2 ÷ 1 = 2

So, the simplified answer is:

25 / 2 = 12.5

Answer:

Ana will work approximately 12.5 hours each day for 5 days to complete the task.

I hope this example helps you understand how to divide fractions in a real-world scenario!