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🧪 Science 🔢 Maths and numbers

Fractions

Fractions

📖 In short

A fraction is part of a whole thing. If you cut an apple into two equal pieces, each piece is half the apple, and we write it ½. If you cut a cake into four equal slices, each slice is a quarter of the cake, and we write it ¼.

🤩 Did you know?

  • A half is bigger than a quarter, because the pieces are bigger when we divide into fewer parts.
  • A half can be written as a decimal: 0.5.
  • We use fractions in cooking: half a cup of milk, a quarter spoon of salt.
  • An hour has quarters: a quarter of an hour equals 15 minutes.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Numerator and denominator

A fraction has two numbers: the bottom one is the denominator and tells us how many parts the thing was divided into. The top one is the numerator and tells us how many parts we took. In ¾ we divided into four and took three.

🔍 Equal parts

In a fraction the parts must be equal. If you cut a pizza into one big piece and one small piece, each piece isn't a half!

💡 Equal fractions

A half ½ equals 2/4, and equals 4/8. Draw a circle and divide it into halves, then divide each half in two, and you'll see that two pieces out of four make a half.

🎯 Which is bigger?

If the denominators are the same, the fraction with the bigger numerator is bigger: 5/7 is bigger than 3/7. And if the numerator is one, the bigger the denominator, the smaller the piece: ½ is bigger than ¼.

📸 More pictures

Saying fractions in words
Saying fractions in words
Equivalent fractions
Equivalent fractions
Multiplying to find equivalent fractions is like cutting a fraction's part into smaller parts. For example, multiplying the numerator and denominator of 1/2 by 3 gives 3/6, which is the same part of the whole as 1/2. It's the same as cutting 1/2 into three equal parts. Dividing to find equivalent fractions is called “simplifying fractions”: for example, dividing the numerator and denominator of 9/12 by 3 gives 3/4. This is like grouping nine 1/12s into three groups of three 1/12s each. Each group of three 1/12s equals 1/4.
Multiplying to find equivalent fractions is like cutting a fraction's part into smaller parts. For example, multiplying the numerator and denominator of 1/2 by 3 gives 3/6, which is the same part of the whole as 1/2. It's the same as cutting 1/2 into three equal parts. Dividing to find equivalent fractions is called “simplifying fractions”: for example, dividing the numerator and denominator of 9/12 by 3 gives 3/4. This is like grouping nine 1/12s into three groups of three 1/12s each. Each group of three 1/12s equals 1/4.

🧩 Test yourself

1 If a cake is cut into 4 equal slices, what do we call one slice?

2 Which is bigger?

3 An hour has quarters: a quarter of an hour equals ?? minutes.

4 Which picture shows “Fractions”?

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