Page 190 - Ganit Kaushal

7 Fractions

7.1 INTRODUCTION Learning Outcomes

Have you ever shared a pizza with your friends or cut By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
a cake into equal slices for a party? When you divide • Understand the concept of fractions and recognise
a whole thing or unit thing into equal parts, you are them as parts of a whole.
dealing with fractions! The word fraction is derived • Identify and differentiate between proper
from the Latin word “fractus”, which means “broken” fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers.
and represents a part of a whole. Fractions help us • Represent fractions on a number line, compare
understand and represent parts of a whole. Imagine you and order them.
have a chocolate bar with 4 pieces, and you ate 1 piece. • Simplify fractions to their lowest terms.
What amount of the chocolate have you eaten? • Perform basic operations (addition, subtraction,

How can you equally distribute three chocolates etc.) with fractions.
among 5 of your friends? • Compare and order fractions with the same or
different denominators.
We will find the answers to all these questions • Solve problems involving fractions in real life.
in this chapter.

7.2 NOTATION AND MEANING

a
A fraction is written in the form or (a/b), and read as ‘a upon b’ or ‘a by b’ where:
b
• ‘a’ is called the Numerator, which tells us how many parts we have.
• ‘b’ is called the Denominator, which tells us how many equal parts make a whole.
3
For example: In , the numerator is 3, and the denominator is 5. This fraction means we have 3 parts out of
5 1
5 equal parts that make a whole. In , the fraction represents half of a whole.
2
Equal Shares and Fractional Units

When one unit is divided into several equal parts, each part is called a fractional unit or a unit fraction.
For example: If one roti is divided equally between two children, each of them will get
1 (one half) of the roti. The denominator ‘2’ shows that two equal parts make a whole
2
roti, and each child will receive 1 (numerator) part.
Further, if one roti is equally shared among four children, then each one of them will
1
get (one fourth) of the roti. The denominator ‘4’ shows that four equal parts make a
4
whole roti, and all the children will have 1 (numerator) part each. (see figure)

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