Re: [Math4u] Does fraction mean division?

I was answering the question "What is 3/4?" in practical terms.

Vinaire

----- Original Message ----
From: Buck Dick <kcubar34@yahoo.com>
To: Math4u@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 7:22:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Math4u] Does fraction mean division?

Vinaire,

 

Now you are back to the naming of the parts of a fraction (this has been posted on this list many dozens of times in the past, check the archives) as "numerator" which is Latin for number (how many) and "denominator" which is Latin for name.  The whole concept of addition and subtraction of fractions is based on the idea that like terms can be combined by addition and subtraction and unlike terms cannot, so like names (common denominators) are needed when adding or subtracting.  This has been spelled out in thousands of arithmetic texts going back to Viete.

 

Buck Dick

Vinaire <vinaire@yahoo. com> wrote:

To divide 3 pizzas among 4 people, one must first divide each of the 3 pizzas into quarter pieces. This gives us 12 quarter-size pieces. We now distribute these 12 pieces equally among 4 people, each person getting 3 of these quarter-size pieces, which 3/4 of pizza.

 

This gives you a very important property of fractions:

 

3/4 = 3 of 1/4

 

Here 1/4 is the "unit fraction." 3/4 is 3 of those unit fractions.

 

Vinaire

----- Original Message ----
From: Ms Kim Noname <nineballaddict@ yahoo.com>
To: Math4u@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 12:36:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Math4u] Does fraction mean division?

I believe you can still refer to 3/4 as division, as
in your example of the pizza, you are dividing 3
pizzas among (by) four people, and each will end up
with 3/4 of 1 pizza.

--- badriyaraihani <bonnerentree2003@ yahoo.fr> wrote:

>
> Hi everyone,
>
> What is ¾ ?
>
>
>
> We can visualize ¾ as 1 pizza cut into 4
>
>
>
> equal slices and you get 3 slices.each
>
>
>
> slice equals ¼ . and you get 3x1/4. In
>
>
>
> this case ¾ is a fraction (we do the share within 1
> )here to
>
> have a whole (1) we mut add 1/4.This is a unit
> partition
>
>
>
> But ¾ can also be seen as 3 pizzas to be shared
> among 4 persons.
>
> We have 3 units .here we say that we have to divide
> 3
>
> units into 4.This is a plural partition
>
> So in this case ¾ is a division
>
>
>
> In the both cases the fraction bar(/) is used .
> this slash
>
> sometimes mean fraction and sometimes division.
>
>
>
> It is a big mistake to say that fraction mean
> division.only in
>
> the case of the unit fractions( fractions which
> have 1 as
>
> numerator) that the meaning of fraction is equal to
> the
>
> meaning of division.
>
>
>
> The fraction ¼ is the same of 1 divided by 4
>
>
>
> Badriya
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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