3 × 2/3
Maya is baking muffins. Each batch needs two-thirds of a cup of flour, and she's making three batches. How much flour does she need in total?
Let's draw the flour for each batch. We'll show two-thirds with a bar split into three equal parts, with two parts shaded.
Here's batch one — two-thirds of a cup.
Batch two — another two-thirds of a cup.
And batch three — two-thirds of a cup again.
Three batches of two-thirds. We can write that as three times two-thirds.
Now let's count all the shaded thirds across the three bars: one, two, three, four, five, six. Six thirds shaded in all.
So three times two-thirds equals six-thirds. The whole number multiplies the numerator, and the denominator stays the same.
Six-thirds means six pieces, each one-third in size. Three thirds make one whole, so six thirds make two wholes.
Maya needs two cups of flour for all three batches. Nice work solving the problem!