Math Is Fun Forum

patsy

Guest

putting fractions in order

we are trying to figure out how to put fractions in order from lowest to highest.  Example: 9/2, 11/4,  3 7/8.

luca-deltodesco

Member

Registered: 2006-05-05

Posts: 1,470

Re: putting fractions in order

to put them in order, make them all into single fractions with the same denominator, so in your example:

from which you can now easily put them in order

Last edited by luca-deltodesco (2009-03-16 11:34:09)

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The End Of All Things To Come.

arrianafeliz

Guest

Re: putting fractions in order

how do you put fractions in order like these ones 1\3 1\4 1\6javascript:insert_text('',%20'');

bobbym

bumpkin

From: Bumpkinland

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 109,606

Re: putting fractions in order

Hi arrianafeliz;

Easy, do you see the ones with the biggest numbers on the bottom, they are the smallest.

1 / 2 is bigger than 1 / 3 which is bigger than 1 / 6.

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In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.

John E. Franklin

Member

Registered: 2005-08-29

Posts: 3,588

Re: putting fractions in order

Also don't forget that fractions is the same thing as long division, except fractions don't
have repeating decimals that go on and on and on.  But anyway, you can
check your answers for fun by doing long division to convert the fractions
into numbers with decimal places.  As an example, I will convert 1/3 into a decimal.
Put the denominator as your divisor, that means we divide 1 by 3.  Here we go:
  _________
3 ) 1.0000

  __0.3_______
3 ) 1.0000
        9
     -----
        10

  __0.33______
3 ) 1.0000
        9
     -----
        10
         9
       ----
          10

Every time you subtract 9 from 10 and get 1, and carry down the 0.
Then it does the same thing again.  3 goes into 10, 3 times with a remainder of 1.
So you can divide this all day long and you get:  1/3 = 0.333333333333333333333
The end.
                                                              ________
Now let's pretend you also did 1/2 = 0.5  by doing 2 ) 1
Then you learn that 0.5 is bigger than 0.33333, just by putting them in
alphabetical order.
The end.

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2010-11-21 01:18:04)

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igloo myrtilles fourmis

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: putting fractions in order

There's a fairly easy test to see which of two fractions is bigger.

Multiply the top of each fraction by the bottom of the other one.
The fraction that contributed its top to the smaller result is the smaller fraction.

For example, which is smaller, 3/14 or 2/9?

To work this out, work out which is the smaller of 3x9 and 14x2.

3x9 = 27.
14x2 = 28.

27 is smaller, and the 3/14 contibuted its top to that result, so 3/14 is smaller than 2/9.

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soroban

Member

Registered: 2007-03-09

Posts: 452

Re: putting fractions in order

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