What is a Fraction?

A fraction is a way of thinking about things, or showing things, that have been broken up into equal parts. When you think about it, math is used to help us make sense of the world, to help us do things more easily and to help solve problems that arise in human activities.

Well, fractions fit right in here—they are ways of looking at things that have been broken up into parts and they are very useful. In reality, when you do fractions you are really working with division. The fraction 1/2 really represents a division problem (1 ÷ 2 which is equal to 0.50), more about that later. For right now, just know that fractions and division are related.

When we break apart a fraction we are breaking up something into equal parts. Let’s say I had this candy bar and I cut it into 5 equal parts. Well, if I gave any one of those parts away, I would be giving away a FRACTION of the candy bar.

Some important language to remember about fractions.

Numerator - the numerator is the number on the top of a fraction.

It represents the number we are dealing with or are concerned with—we wanted to give away 3/5 (three-fifths of the candy bar).

Denominator - the denominator is the total amount of pieces the whole has been broken up into—in our example the candy bar was broken into 5 equal pieces.

It is important to get to know these terms, because you will deal with them, extensively, throughout mathematics and many other subjects, while is school and in life.

The are common fractions you should get to know, on sight, and get familiar with what they represent.

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For example, if I broke this pretzel in half, I would be dealing with 1/2 of the pretzel.

½

¼, ¾

⅓, ⅔

⅕, ⅖, ⅗, ⅘, ⅚

⅒

Are all common fractions that you will see a lot. In fact you will see 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc. very often since we base things on percentages, these fractions come up a lot.

For right now, begin to recognize fractions in your life: slices of pizza, cake, $0.25 (is 1/4, a quarter, of a dollar), etc.

Also, become familiar with common fractions that you might see, like the ones noted about. We will now move on to adding and subtracting fractions.

Summary

  • Fractions are things that have been broken up into equal parts

  • The numerator is the number on top and it is the number we are dealing with.

  • The denominator is the number on the bottom and it is the amount that the whole has been broken up into.

Danita Smith