As part of a lesson on earthquakes, a science class is researching the movement of a nearby fault line. The fault line moved \( 1 / 2 \) of an inch during the past year and \( 1 / 4 \) of an inch the year before. How far did the fault line move in all? Write your answer as a fraction or as a whole or mixed number.

The fault line moved \( \frac{1}{2} \) inch last year and \( \frac{1}{4} \) inch the year before. To find the total movement, you can add these two fractions together. First, convert \( \frac{1}{2} \) to a fraction with a common denominator of 4, which becomes \( \frac{2}{4} \). Now you can add: \[ \frac{2}{4} + \frac{1}{4} = \frac{3}{4} \] So, the fault line moved a total of \( \frac{3}{4} \) inch in all.