Fractions

A fraction is a part of a whole

Numerator / Denominator

We call the top number the Numerator, it is the number of parts we have.
We call the bottom number the Denominator, it is the number of parts the whole is divided into.

Numerator
Denominator

You just have to remember those names! (If you forget just think "Down"-ominator)

Adding Fractions

It is easy to add fractions with the same denominator (same bottom number):

/4
1
+ /4
1
= /4
2
= /2
1

(One-Quarter)   (One-Quarter)   (Two-Quarters)   (One-Half)

+ = =

Another example:

5
/8 + 1
/8 = 6
/8 = 3
/4

+ = =

Adding Mixed Fractions

I find this is the best way to add mixed fractions:

 convert them to Improper Fractions

 then add them (using Addition of Fractions)
 then convert back to Mixed Fractions:

Example: What is  2 3/ 4  +  3 1/ 2   ?

Convert to Improper Fractions:

2 3/ 4 = 11 /4

3 1 /2 = 7 /2

Common denominator of 4:

11 /4  stays as  11 /4

7 2  becomes  14 /4
(by multiplying top and bottom by 2)
 Now Add:

11 /4  +  14 /4  =  25 4

Convert back to Mixed Fractions:

25 /4  =  6 1 /4

Adding Fractions with Different Denominators

But what about when the denominators (the bottom numbers) are not the same?

3
/8 + 1
/4 = ?    

We must somehow make the denominators the same.

In this case it is easy, because we know that 1/4 is the same as 2/8 :
3
/8 + 2
/8 = 5
/8    
 

But when it is hard to make the denominators the same, use one of these methods (they both work, use
the one you prefer):

 Least Common Denominator, or

 Common Denominator

In the previous example the Least Common Multiple of 3 and 6 was 6.

In other words the Least Common Denominator of 1 3 and 1 6 is 6.

Here are the steps to follow:

 Find the Least Common Multiple of the denominators (which is called the Least
Common Denominator).
 Change each fraction (using equivalent fractions) to make their denominators the
same as the least common denominator
 Then add (or subtract) the fractions, as we wish!

Least Common Multiple Tool

To find the least common denominator automatically use the Least Common Multiple Tool. Just put in
the denominators, press the button, and the least common denominator is shown.

One More Example

Example: What is 3 8 + 5 12 ?

List the multiples of 8 and 12

multiples of 8:   8, 16, 24, 32, 40, ...

multiples 12:   12, 24, 36, 48, ...
The Least Common Multiple is 24

Let's try to make the denominators the same ... when we multiply 8 × 3 we get 24, and when we multiply
12 × 2 we also get 24. So, let's use that:

  ×3     ×2  

38 = 924 and 512 = 1024

  ×3     ×2  

Now we can do the addition:

9 24 + 10 24 = 19 24

The fraction is already as simple as it can be, so that is the answer.

Common Denominator

The denominator is the bottom number in a fraction.

It shows how many equal parts the item is divided into.

What is a Common Denominator?

"Common" Denominator is when the denominators

in two (or more) fractions are common, or the same.

Why is it Important?

Adding and Subtracting Fractions

Before we can add or subtract fractions, the fractions need to have a common denominator (in other
words the denominators must be the same).

Making The Denominators the Same

When the denominators are not the same, we can either use the Least Common Denominator method to
make them the same, or we can:

Multiply top and bottom of each fraction by the denominator of the other.

Like in this example (press play button):

This always works, but we often need to simplify the fraction afterwards, as in this example (press play
button):

We simplified the fraction 2032 to 1016 , then to 58 by dividing the top and bottom by 2 each time, and
that is as simple as it can get!

What Did We Do?

1. We multiplied each fraction by the denominator of the other. Let's use letters instead of numbers to
show it:

2. And because they now have the same denominator, we can add them:

In One Step!

We could do those two things in one step like this:

Subtracting Fractions

There are 3 simple steps to subtract fractions

 Step 1. Make sure the bottom numbers (the denominators) are the same
 Step 2. Subtract the top numbers (the numerators). Put the answer over the same denominator.
 Step 3. Simplify the fraction (if needed).

Example 1:

34−14

Step 1. The bottom numbers are already the same. Go straight to step 2.

Step 2. Subtract the top numbers and put the answer over the same denominator:

34−14 = 3−14 = 24

Step 3. Simplify the fraction:

24=12

Multiplying Fractions

Multiply the tops, multiply the bottoms.

There are 3 simple steps to multiply fractions

1. Multiply the top numbers (the numerators).

2. Multiply the bottom numbers (the denominators).

3. Simplify the fraction if needed.

1 /3 × 9 /16

Step 1. Multiply the top numbers:

1 /3  ×  9 /16   =   1 × 9     =   9  

Step 2. Multiply the bottom numbers:

1 /3  ×  9 /16   =   1 × 9 /3 × 16   =   9/48

Step 3. Simplify the fraction:

9 /48 = 3 /16

(This time we simplified by dividing both top and bottom by 3)

Fractions and Whole Numbers

What about multiplying fractions and whole numbers?

Make the whole number a fraction, by putting it over 1.

Example: 5 is also 5/1

Example:

2/3  ×  5

Make 5 into 5 1 :

2/3  ×  5 1

Now just go ahead as normal.

Multiply tops and bottoms:

2/3  ×  5/1   =   2 × 5 3 × 1   =   10/3

The fraction is already as simple as it can be.

Answer = 10/ 3

Dividing Fractions

Turn the second fraction upside down, then multiply.

There are 3 Simple Steps to Divide Fractions:

Step 1. Turn the second fraction (the one you want to divide by) upside down
 (this is now a reciprocal).

Step 2. Multiply the first fraction by that reciprocal

Step 3. Simplify the fraction (if needed)

Another Example:

1 /8   ÷   1 /4

Step 1. Turn the second fraction upside down (the reciprocal):

1 /4   becomes   4/ 1

Step 2. Multiply the first fraction by that reciprocal:

1 /8   ×   4 /1 = 1 × 4 8 × 1 = 4 /8

Step 3. Simplify the fraction:

4 /8   =   1 /2

Dividing Fractions By Whole Numbers

Multiply the bottom number of the fraction by the whole number.

To Divide a Fraction by a Whole Number:

 Step 1. Multiply the bottom number of the fraction by the whole number
 Step 2. Simplify the fraction (if needed)

Example:

1/2   ÷  3

Step 1. Multiply the bottom number of the fraction by the whole number:

1 /2 × 3   =   1/ 6

Step 2. Fraction is already as simple as possible, so no need for step 2. Answer:

1/ 2   ÷  3  =   1 6

Convert Percents to Decimals

Just move the decimal point 2 places to the left and remove the "%" sign!
 Greatest Common Factor

The highest number that divides exactly into two or more numbers.
It is the "greatest" thing for simplifying fractions!

Let's start with an Example ... 

Greatest Common Factor of 12 and 16

1. Find all the Factors of each number,

2. Circle the Common factors,
3. Choose the Greatest of those

A Percent can also be expressed as a Decimal or a Fraction

A Half can be written...  

  As a percentage: 50%

As a decimal: 0.5

As a fraction: 1
/2

Example: Calculate 25% of 80

25
25% =  
100

25
 × 80 =
And  
20
100

So 25% of 80 is 20

Example: 15% of 200 apples are bad. How many apples are bad?
 15
15% =  
100

15 200
And    × 200  =  15 ×    =  15 × 2  =  30 apples
100 100

30 apples are bad

Example: if only 10 of the 200 apples are bad, what percent is that?

As a fraction, 10/200 = 0.05

As a percentage it is: (10/200) x 100 = 5%

5% of those apples are bad

Example: A Skateboard is reduced 25% in price in a sale.

The old price was $120.
Find the new price.

First, find 25% of $120:

25
25% =  
100

25
And    × $120 = $30
100

25% of $120 is $30

So the reduction is $30

Take the reduction from the original price

$120 - $30 = $90

The Price of the Skateboard in the sale is $90

Convert Decimals to Percents

Quick Method: move the decimal point 2 places to the right and add a "%" sign!
Example: Convert 0.35 to percent

Move the decimal point two places to the right: 0.35 → 3.5 → 35.

Add a % sign: 35%

Answer 0.35 = 35%

Using Proportions to Solve Percents

A percent is actually a ratio! Saying "25%" is actually saying "25 per 100":

25% = 25100

We can use proportions to solve questions involving percents.

First, put what we know into this form:

PartWhole = Percent100

Example: what is 25% of 160 ?

The percent is 25, the whole is 160, and we want to find the "part":

Part160 = 25100

Find the Part:

Example: what is 25% of 160 (continued) ?

Part160 = 25100

Multiply across the known corners, then divide by the third number:

Part = (160 × 25) / 100 = 4000 / 100 = 40

Answer: 25% of 160 is 40.

Note: we could have also solved this by doing the divide first, like this:

Part = 160 × (25 / 100) = 160 × 0.25 = 40

Either method works fine.

We can also find a Percent:

Example: what is $12 as a percent of $80 ?

Fill in what we know:

$12$80 = Percent100

Multiply across the known corners, then divide by the third number. This time the known corners are top
left and bottom right:

Percent = ($12 × 100) / $80 = 1200 / 80 = 15%

Answer: $12 is 15% of $80

Or find the Whole:

Example: The sale price of a phone was $150, which was only 80% of normal price. What was the
normal price?

Fill in what we know:

$150Whole = 80100

Multiply across the known corners, then divide by the third number:

Whole = ($150 × 100) / 80 = 15000 / 80 = 187.50

Answer: the phone's normal price was $187.50

Sequences

You can read a gentle introduction to Sequences in Common Number Patterns.

What is a Sequence?

A Sequence is a list of things (usually numbers) that are in order.

Infinite or Finite

When the sequence goes on forever it is called an infinite sequence,

otherwise it is a finite sequence

Examples:

{1, 2, 3, 4, ...} is a very simple sequence (and it is an infinite sequence)

{20, 25, 30, 35, ...} is also an infinite sequence

{1, 3, 5, 7} is the sequence of the first 4 odd numbers (and is a finite sequence)

{4, 3, 2, 1} is 4 to 1 backwards

{1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ...} is an infinite sequence where every term doubles

{a, b, c, d, e} is the sequence of the first 5 letters alphabetically

{f, r, e, d} is the sequence of letters in the name "fred"

{0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, ...} is the sequence of alternating 0s and 1s (yes they are in order, it is an alternating
order in this case)

In Order

When we say the terms are "in order", we are free to define what order that is! They could go forwards,
backwards ... or they could alternate ... or any type of order we want!

Like a Set

A Sequence is like a Set, except:

 the terms are in order (with Sets the order does not matter)
 the same value can appear many times (only once in Sets)

Example: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, ...} is the sequence of alternating 0s and 1s.

The set is just {0,1}

Notation

Sequences also use the same notation as sets:

list each element, separated by a comma, {3, 5, 7, ...}
and then put curly brackets around the whole thing.

The curly brackets { } are sometimes called "set brackets" or "braces".

A Rule

A Sequence usually has a Rule, which is a way to find the value of each term.

Example: the sequence {3, 5, 7, 9, ...} starts at 3 and jumps 2 every time:

As a Formula

Saying "starts at 3 and jumps 2 every time" is fine, but it doesn't help us calculate the:

 10th term,
 100th term, or
 nth term, where n could be any term number we want.

So, we want a formula with "n" in it (where n is any term number).

So, What Can A Rule For {3, 5, 7, 9, ...} Be?

Firstly, we can see the sequence goes up 2 every time, so we can guess that a Rule is something like "2
times n" (where "n" is the term number). Let's test it out:

Test Rule: 2n

n Term Test Rule

1 3 2n = 2×1 = 2

2 5 2n = 2×2 = 4

3 7 2n = 2×3 = 6

That nearly worked ... but it is too low by 1 every time, so let us try changing it to:

Test Rule: 2n+1

n Term Test Rule

1 3 2n+1 = 2×1 + 1 = 3

2 5 2n+1 = 2×2 + 1 = 5

3 7 2n+1 = 2×3 + 1 = 7

That Works!
So instead of saying "starts at 3 and jumps 2 every time" we write this:

2n+1

Now we can calculate, for example, the 100th term:

2 × 100 + 1 = 201

Many Rules

But mathematics is so powerful we can find more than one Rule that works for any sequence.

Example: the sequence {3, 5, 7, 9, ...}

We have just shown a Rule for {3, 5, 7, 9, ...} is: 2n+1

And so we get: {3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, ...}

But can we find another rule?

How about "odd numbers without a 1 in them":

And we get: {3, 5, 7, 9, 23, 25, ...}

A completely different sequence!

And we could find more rules that match {3, 5, 7, 9, ...}. Really we could.

So it is best to say "A Rule" rather then "The Rule" (unless we know it is the right Rule).

Notation

To make it easier to use rules, we often use this special style:

 xn is the term
 n is the term number

Example: to mention the "5th term" we write: x5

So a rule for {3, 5, 7, 9, ...} can be written as an equation like this:

xn = 2n+1

And to calculate the 10th term we can write:

x10 = 2n+1 = 2×10+1 = 21

Can you calculate x50 (the 50th term) doing this?

Here is another example:

Example: Calculate the first 4 terms of this sequence:

{an} = { (-1/n)n }
Calculations:

 a1 = (-1/1)1 = -1
 a2 = (-1/2)2 = 1/4
 a3 = (-1/3)3 = -1/27
 a4 = (-1/4)4 = 1/256

Answer:

{an} = { -1, 1/4, -1/27, 1/256, ... }

Special Sequences

Now let's look at some special sequences, and their rules.

Arithmetic Sequences

In an Arithmetic Sequence the difference between one term and the next is a constant.

In other words, we just add some value each time ... on to infinity.

Example:

1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, ...

This sequence has a difference of 3 between each number.

Its Rule is xn = 3n-2

In General we can write an arithmetic sequence like this:

{a, a+d, a+2d, a+3d, ... }

where:

 a is the first term, and

 d is the difference between the terms (called the "common difference")

And we can make the rule:

xn = a + d(n-1)

(We use "n-1" because d is not used in the 1st term).

Geometric Sequences

In a Geometric Sequence each term is found by multiplying the previous term by a constant.

Example:

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, ...

This sequence has a factor of 2 between each number.

Its Rule is xn = 2n

In General we can write a geometric sequence like this:

 {a, ar, ar2, ar3, ... }

where:

 a is the first term, and

 r is the factor between the terms (called the "common ratio")

Note: r should not be 0.

 When r=0, we get the sequence {a,0,0,...} which is not geometric

And the rule is:

xn = ar(n-1)

(We use "n-1" because ar0 is the 1st term)

Triangular Numbers

1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, ...

The Triangular Number Sequence is generated from a pattern of dots which form a triangle.

By adding another row of dots and counting all the dots we can find the next number of the sequence:

But it is easier to use this Rule:

xn = n(n+1)/2

Example:

 the 5th Triangular Number is x5 = 5(5+1)/2 = 15,

 and the sixth is x6 = 6(6+1)/2 = 21

Square Numbers

1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, ...

The next number is made by squaring where it is in the pattern.

Rule is xn = n2

Cube Numbers

1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729, ...

The next number is made by cubing where it is in the pattern.

Rule is xn = n3

Fibonacci Sequence

This is the Fibonacci Sequence

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ...

The next number is found by adding the two numbers before it together:

 The 2 is found by adding the two numbers before it (1+1)

 The 21 is found by adding the two numbers before it (8+13)
 etc...

Rule is xn = xn-1 + xn-2

That rule is interesting because it depends on the values of the previous two terms.

Rules like that are called recursive formulas.

The Fibonacci Sequence is numbered from 0 onwards like this:

n= 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ...

xn = 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 ...

Example: term "6" is calculated like this:

x6 = x6-1 + x6-2 = x5 + x4 = 5 + 3 = 8

Series and Partial Sums

Now you know about sequences, the next thing to learn about is how to sum them up. Read our page on
Partial Sums.

When we sum up just part of a sequence it is called a Partial Sum.

But a sum of an infinite sequence it is called a "Series" (it sounds like another name for sequence, but it
is actually a sum). See Infinite Series.

Example: Odd numbers

Sequence: {1, 3, 5, 7, ...}

Series: 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + ...

Partial Sum of first 3 terms: 1 + 3 + 5