Can someone please explain this basic Algebra question to me

1. If Lynn can type a page in p minutes, what piece of the page can she do in 5 minutes?

the answer is 5/p


but my question is, what steps do I take in order to find the answer to this problem? do i divide something?

This type of problem is just to get you to understand how to set up a problem with a variable. If the problem stated she can type a page in 10 minutes then you would just substitute 10 for the p. and get 5/10 meaning 1/2. The original problem is supposed to get you to understand that division would be the operation to use.

There's not much to do, really. It's just a simple analysis. If you put a value for p, you might understand... for instance p = 1 min., then in 5 minutes she can type 5 whole pages...
another one, if p = 25 min., then in 5 minutes she has already finished 1/5 of the page. why because
the time of typing is directly proportional to the number of pages, that is as the time increases, the number of pages also increases proportionately.
The equation for the direct variation is y = k(x)
in the case of the problem
if y = number of pages
and x = time
then from the problem, if x = p then y = 1
solving for k; k=1/p
the original equation then becomes y = x/p
then if x = 5; y = 5 / p...
hope you get it.

There's not really any steps that you take to find the answer. I think you can just figure it out by reading the problem.
Fractions are basically Part/Whole
The whole is the whole page being typed in p minutes.
The part is the piece of the page being typed in 5 minutes.
5 minutes / p minutes.
Sorry, I didn't really know to explain it. :x I hope that helped.

5/p is correct

set up as a proportionality

1 page / p min = x page / 5 min

solve for x

x pages = 5 min x 1page / p min = 5 min per page / p min = 5 / p pages

Either it's 5p or find "p" which I don't know