Fractions
Yours is not to wonder
why,
Just invert and
multiply.
Or, on the other hand, you
could spend a few minutes wondering about what is happening when you divide by a
fraction. Memorizing algorithms, with no understanding, often leads people to
feel dumb and that can build up into math avoidance, math anxiety, or math
phobia.
Start with 2 divided by 2/3.
Think of it as 2 cups of pudding divided into servings that are 2/3 cups each.
How many servings will you have? Take 2/3 out of each of the cups of pudding -
that's 2 servings. Each of the cups has 1/3 left in it - so that is two more
thirds or another 2/3. So - 2 cups breaks down into 3 servings that are 2/3 cups
each. 2 divided by 2/3 is 3 because 2 cups of pudding divided into 2/3 cup
servings yields 3 servings.
Think a bit
about 6/8 of a pizza and imagine dividing it into 3 pieces. You can think of
that 6/8 of a pizza as 2/8 and 2/8 and 2/8, so each of the 3 pieces is 2/8. So
6/8 divided by 3 equals 2/8.
Now
think about it just a little differently - imagine dividing 6/8 of a pizza into
pieces so that each piece is 2/8, how many pieces would you have? Three. So 6/8
divided by 2/8 equals 3.
Posted: Thu - November 6, 2003 at 02:36 PM