How many yards of rope light does he have left after finishing both the front and rear spoilers?

There will be two parts, 1st for the answer, and 2nd for the extended version.

1. The answer is 1 3/4

2. Since he already had 4 1/2 and he needs 2 3/4 so he would be left with 1 3/4. That is due to the equation of "4 2/4 - 2 3/4 = ?", in this equation you would need to make the fraction 4 2/4 from a simplified fraction to an improper fraction. That is due to the 2/4 of the 4 1/2 since one half is smaller than 3/4. So you would take the 4 and make it a three, then you would add 4/4 to 2/4, resulting in 6/4, now you would have the equation of "3 6/4 - 2 3/4". So first you would subtract two from the three, leaving 1, and subtract three fourths from six fourths, leaving 3/4. You will put those results together to get, 1 3/4.

1 and 3/4. Hope this helps!