Chapter 9

Fooling with Fractions

In This Chapter

arrow Looking at basic fractions

arrow Knowing the numerator from the denominator

arrow Understanding proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers

arrow Increasing and reducing the terms of fractions

arrow Converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers

arrow Using cross-multiplication to compare fractions

Suppose that today is your birthday and your friends are throwing you a surprise party. After opening all your presents, you finish blowing out the candles on your cake, but now you have a problem: Eight of you want some cake, but you have only one cake. Several solutions are proposed:

  • You can all go into the kitchen and bake seven more cakes.
  • Instead of eating cake, everyone can eat celery sticks.
  • Because it's your birthday, you can eat the whole cake and everyone else can eat celery sticks. (That idea was yours.)
  • You can cut the cake into eight ...

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