the problems says to change one or both fractions so that they have the same denominator. Then write < > or =. How is this done on problems like 2/5 1/2

Question

how do we solve the problem 3/4 2/3 how is this made < > or =?k

Answer 1

When you have 2/5 and 1/2, the common denominator in this case is 5 X 2 = 10.

If you change the two fractions to be represented by the common denominator 10, 2/5=4/10 and 1/2=5/10

You have your answer: 2/5=4/10<5/10=1/2.

If you are more comfortable thinking about slices of pizza, in order to get 2/5 of a pizza, it needs to be cut into 5 equal pieces, to get 1/2, 2 pieces. To get both 2/5 and 1/2 off the same pizza, in equal slices, you will need to cut the pizza into 10 pieces, and take 4 out for 2/5 and 5 out for 1/2.

Common denominator can easily be obtained by multipling the numbers. However, the least common denominator could be way smaller than that. Going back to the pizza case, if we want 1/6 and 1/2 of the same pizza, we don't need to cut the pizza into 6X2=12 slices, 6 slices are enough, because the least common denominator of 2 and 6 is actually 6 itself.

Hope it helps. Good luck!

Answer 2

3/4 is equal to 9/12

2/3 is equal to 8/12

Which is bigger, or are they equal?

Well, 9 is bigger then 8, so 9/12 is bigger then 8/12 (because the 12's are the same.)

So, 3/4 > 2/3 (3/4 is greater then 2/3)