Tamia is making dinner. She is using 5 bell peppers to make her meal. She likes to have a variety of sizes so some will melt and some will be thick enough to eat whole. First she cuts each bell pepper into 20 large slices. Then she takes half those slices and cuts them into 3 smaller pieces each. How many slices and pieces of bell pepper total is Tamia going to add to her meal? Give me reasons, before answering the question
First, Tamia cuts the 5 bell peppers into 20 slices each, 5 x 20 = 100 slices. Then, she takes 1 / 2 of those to cut into smaller pieces, 100 / 2 = 50 slices to cut smaller. Tamia takes each of those 50 slices and cuts them into 3 pieces each, 50 x 3 = 150. Tamia is adding 50 slices + 150 smaller pieces = 200 pieces of bell pepper added to her meal. So the final answer is 200.