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Introduction

Theterm ?fraction? is from the Latin word ?fractus? meaning ?broken?.

Afraction is a broken number that represents a part or parts of somethingconsidered as a whole.

1/6,2/8, 3/5, 11/15, 34/79, 121/197?are some examples of fractions.

Ina fraction, the top number called the ?numerator? represents the part and thebottom number called the ?denominator? represents the whole.

Inthe fractions mentioned above, 1, 2, 3, 11, 34, 121 are the ?numerators? and 6,8, 5, 15, 79, 197 are the ?denominators?.

Types of fractions

Thefollowing are the three different types of fractions.

Proper fractions
Improper fractions
Mixed numbers

Properfraction

Ina ?proper fraction? the numerator (topnumber) is less than its denominator (bottom number). Examples: 2/5, 7/9,101/120 etc.

Improperfraction

Inan ?improper fraction? the numerator(top number) is greater than or equal to the denominator (bottom number).Examples: 4/3, 7/4, 11/10, 5/5, 213/188 etc.

Mixednumber

A?mixed number? is a whole number and aproper fraction combined. Examples: 1 1/3, 4 1/5, 7 3/4, 100 6/7 etc.

Fractions in RealLife Situations

Everyday, without even noticing it, weuse fractions. We use fractions when sharing food e.g. pizza, pies,fruits etc. The following are some examples of fractions in real lifesituations.

Example 1

Supposeyou have just 1 apple at home and you want to share it with your brother. Whatdo you do? You cut the apple into halves to share it between the 2 of you. Eachone gets half or 1/2 of an apple.

Example 2

Nowsay you have 7 friends come over. You ordered a large pizza and you wanted to share it with7 of your friends.How much will each one get?

Thereare 8 people'so you cut the pizza into 8 equal slices and each one gets one slice.Each one gets one-eighth or 1/8 of the pizza.

Example 3

Knowing fractionsmakes a chef's life easier. In most recipes, a chef measures ingredients that are in fractionalparts, like 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2/3tablespoon of vanilla extract, 4 1/3 cups of flour etc.

If a chef doesn't measure correctly or figure out just how much of aningredient need to be added to the recipe, then the food he/she makes won?ttaste very good.

Hereare a couple of recipes with lots of nice fractions:

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Dark Chocolate Brownie Recipe

? 8ounces bittersweet chocolate

? 4ounces butter

? 4large eggs

? 1/4teaspoon salt

? 11/4 cup granulated sugar

? 11/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

? 3/4cup all-purpose flour

? 1cup chopped walnuts

Example 4

Ashiny ribbon bowmakes a gift-wrapped present look special. Sara wanted to tie 4 Christmas giftswith silver ribbon. She bought 3 yards of silver ribbon to make 4 silver bowsof equal length.

Sarahas to first figure out the amount of ribbon it takes to make 1 bow. Once thelength is known, she can use a ruler to measure and then cut them into equalpieces.

3yards of ribbon for 4 bows

11/2 yards of ribbon for 2 bows

3/4of a yard of ribbon for 1 bow

So,Sara will need three-fourths or 3/4 of a yard of ribbon to make 1 bow.

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I'm Chandrajeet, an in-house writer for iCoachMath. iCoachMathis an effective, convenient, easy-to-use online Math Program which has beenused by thousands of students, teachers, and parents.iCoachMath strives to leadK-12 students to excellence in math by offering quality web-based educationalsolutions. iCoachMath's instructional and lesson materials are aligned toState Curriculum Standards in all 50 states (USA).

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Sugar Cookie Recipe