When a question involves fractions, they do not want you to immediately convert to a decimal, solve it, then convert the answer to a fraction. They want you to learn how to work with fractions.
P = 2L + 2W
2L = 2 * (4 1/4) = 8 1/2
2W = 2 * (2 5/6) = 4 5/3 = 5 2/3 < 5/3 is 1 2/3, which we add to the 4
When adding or subtracting fractions, we need them to have a common denominator. In this case, that would be 6. We multiply the 1/2 by 3/3 to get 3/6; then, multiply the 2/3 by 2/2 to get 4/6.
P = (8 3/6) + (5 4/6) = 13 7/6 = 14 1/6 < 7/6 is 1 1/6, which we add to the 13
A solution that is worked entirely in fractions.