Fractions Made Easy 183
So, the answer is 17 divided by 2, which is 8 with 1 remainder. Th e
remainder goes to the top (numerator), and the 2 at the bottom
remains where it is for the answer. Our answer is 8½.
DIVIDING FRACTIONS
In the previous section we multiplied 17 by ½ to fi nd half of 17.
How would you divide 17 by ½?
Let’s assume we have 17 oranges to divide among 30 children.
If we cut each orange in half (divide by ½), we would have enough
for everyone, plus some left over.
If we cut an orange in half, we get 2 pieces for each orange, so we had
17 oranges but 34 orange halves. Dividing the oranges makes the
number bigger. So, to divide by one-half we can actually multiply
by 2, because we get 2 halves for each orange.
So ⁄ ÷ ½ is the same as ⁄ × ⁄.
To divide by a fraction, we turn the fraction we are dividing by
upside down and make it a multiplication. Th at’s not too hard!
Who said fractions are diffi cult?
Test you rself
Try these problems in your head:
a)^1 / 2 ÷^1 / 2 =
b)^1 / 3 ÷^1 / 2 =
c)^2 / 5 ÷^1 / 4 =
d)^1 / 4 ÷^1 / 4 =
Here are the answers. How did you do?
a) 1 b)^2 / 3 c)^8 / 5 or 1^3 / 5 d) 1
cc18.indd Sec1:183 18 .indd Sec 1 : 183 1/9/07 8:40:37 AM 1 / 9 / 07 8 : 40 : 37 AM
brent
(Brent)
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