Find the number halfway between each pair of numbers. 2/5 and 4/7

Question

Please Help I've spent the last hour on this single problem trying to come up with the answer, and because I want to understand exactly how to find the answer please show all steps on how you found the answer please.

Answer 1

What you are requested to get is also known as the AVERAGE of the two numbers.

 

Add them up, and divide by two (or equivalently, multiply by ½).

 

Adding up these two numbers requires, of course, use of the common denominator.  You need to become comfortable working with fractions!

Answer 2

well, first we need to a common denominator. Do you now how to found it? If you have no idea, you could just multiply denominators and get to something over 35.

 

We know that if we multiply numerator and denominator by the same number our fraction doesn't change. So we need to multiply both parts of 2/5 by 7 and both parts of 4/7 by 5.

 

We have 14/35 now and 20/35. What would be the number halfway between 14 and 20? 14+20 = 34, 34/2 = 17. It looks about right, from 17 we have 3 units to go to 14 and 3 units to go to 20.

 

So our answer would be 17/35.

 

If you need more explanation, please let me know what part is not clear enough.