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Arithmetic with Fractions
Why do we need to be able to do this?
Why can’t I just use my calculator?
It’s often quicker to do arithmetic with fractions in your head than it is to find your calculator.
Being able at least estimate the answer in your head lets you check to see whether you did your calculator work correctly.
Many fractions don’t have nice looking decimal forms, so the fraction is a simpler answer. A fraction also shows a proportion directly, and those are harder to see with decimal numbers.
Understanding how arithmetic works with fractions will help you when you’re working with complicated algebraic expressions later.
Your teachers will expect you to be able to do fairly simple arithmetic with fractions quickly and automatically, and with no calculator help.
What should you be able to do?
Express a fraction in its simplest form: Commonly known as “reducing” a fraction, this means writing the fraction so there are no common factors between its numerator and its denominator.
Example: Write the fraction 35/105 in its simplest form.
In order to see what factors might be common to the numerator and denominator, we need to factor each one. Finding the prime factorization is a good place to start:
Note that there is a 5 in both the numerator and denominator, and there is a 7 in both the numerator and denominator. We can rewrite the fraction as:
The 5/5 and the 7/7 are both just ways to write 1. So 35/105 is really 1/3, multiplied by
1 two times. Its simplest form is 1/3.
Express fractions with common denominators: For much of the arithmetic you will do on fractions, you need to find a common denominator. That means finding some number that is a multiple of all of the denominators you start with.
Example: Find a common denominator for 7/12 and 5/8, and express each fraction over that common denominator.
We need a multiple of both 12 and 8. One way to quickly find a common denominator is to simply multiply the denominators – in this case, a common denominator is 12 x 8 = 96.
To express a fraction over a common denominator, multiply it by 1 (so it doesn’t change
its value). The way you write the 1 is missing factor/ same missing factor.
Find the prime factorization of two- and three-digit numbers. To find common denominators, you will want to be able to quickly factor two-and three-digit numbers. Here are some strategies
- Have the multiplication table memorized – then you can quickly recognize 56 as 7 x 8.
- If you need to factor a number you don’t know much about, you can divide it in turn by smaller numbers to look for factors. That sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn’t need to be. You only have to try prime numbers, less than the number’s square root. (Do you have to know the square root of the number? No, but you should be able to know what it’s between.) And if you find a factor, you can look at the smaller, probably more familiar numbers. I find it most useful to start with the smallest primes and work my way up. And, yes, I do use a calculator sometimes at this point.
Example: Find the prime factorization of 132.
I can see that 2 is a factor, since 132 ends in 2. I’ll divide that out to get 132 = 2 × 66. Now I can see that 66 = 6 × 11 (multiplication tables). So 132 = 2 × 6 × 11. These aren’t all prime numbers, so let me factor the 6 a bit further.
132 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 11, or 2^2 × 3 × 11.
the addition or subtraction (adding or subtracting the re-expressed numerators), and putting your answer in simplest form.
Example:. 35
Multiply fractions : This is much easier than adding or subtracting – you can simply multiply numerators and denominators straight across.
Example:. 45
Divide fractions : This is that old “invert-and-multiply.” But which one do you invert? Remember that dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying by its reciprocal. (Think about dividing by two being the same as multiplying by ½, multiplying by 1/10 being the same as dividing by ten.) So the divisor, the fraction written after the division symbol or in the denominator of the compound fraction, is the one to invert.
Example:. 5
÷ = ⋅ = =
Estimate size: You can often make a crude estimate of the answer to an arithmetic problem involving fractions by thinking about the size of the parts. You should be able to estimate whether a fraction is closer to zero, to ½, or to 1, for example. You can think in terms of wholes, halves, thirds, quarters, and tenths – these are the fractions we are most used to.
Example: Did we invert the right fraction in the example above? Is the answer to 3
÷
really 5
? Or should it be 2
instead?
Remember that dividing means the same thing whether it’s whole numbers or fractions – how many 2/3s will fit in 4/15? 4/15 is about ¼, so 2/3 is bigger than 4/15, so less than one 2/3 will fit inside 4/15. Our answer should be less than one. So 2/5 makes more sense than 5/2.
