Answer :

[tex]a \ fifth \to \frac{1}{5} \\\\ \ a \ fifth \ of \ 60= \frac{1}{5}*60= 1*12=\boxed{12} [/tex]
60/5=12
The reason this works is because 1/5 of 60 is when 60 is split into 5 equally sized parts and you take just 1 of them. If you divide 60 by 5, you get the number of times that 5 goes into 60. That means that the answer, which is 12, multiplied by 5=60. Because 12 goes in to 60 exactly 5 times, 12 is one of those 5 equal parts that make up 60, so is 1/5 of 60. I know this is a bad explanation, but I hope it helped.