1-4 Dividing Fractions

1-4
• When dividing by fractions there are several ways to visualize this.
• One is by doing repeated subtraction
• One is by using a number line
• One is by multiplying by the reciprocal. (Fraction reversed)
• For example, say I was dividing 3 by 3/4.
• I could convert 3 to fourths, by using 12/4. And than taking way ¾ until I have 0. I
can do this 4 times.
• I could divide up a number line of 3 with 4 parts for each number and count back
steps in ¾ increments until I get 4.
• Or I could multiply 3 by 4/3 to get what 3 / ¾ is.
• 3/1 x 4/3 is 12/3 or 4.
1-4 Dividing Fractions by whole numbers.
• You could visualize with a diagram.
• Or convert the whole number to a fraction, and use the reciprocal of
the fraction. ½ / 3 is the same as (1/2) x (1/3) or (1/6)-
• --Guided Practice:
• 6 / (2/3)
• (2/5) / 2
• 9 / (3/5)
• Answers
• (6/1) x (3/2) = 18/2 or 9
• (2/5) x (1/2) = 2/10 or 1/5
• (9/1) x (5/3) = 45/3 or 15.
1-5 Dividing Fractions by Fractions
• To divide fractions by fractions, you can use the same strategies as for
whole numbers.
• 1. Make an area model.
• 2. Use the reciprocal
• Remember, you only reverse ONE fraction (use the second number, the one
doing the dividing.)
• So if you had (1/2) / (3/4), you set that up as (1/2) x (4/3) for (4/6) or (2/3)
• Remember, if you divide a number smaller than 1 by another number smaller
than one, it should get bigger.
• Remember to Simplify!
Guided Practice
• 1. (3/4) / (1/6)
• 2. (2/5) / (8/5)
• 3. (3/4) / (1/8)
1-6 Dividing Mixed Numbers
• 1. Round, and estimate an answer (use it to check your answer)
• Divide 37 ½ by 6 ¼ .
• 1. 36 / 6 is 6 (so our answer should be around 6)
• Convert the mixed number as a fraction.
• 37 ½ becomes 75/2 and 6 ¼ becomes 25/4
• 2.Now treat this like you would any division of fractions (i.e. multiply
by the reciprocal)
• So 37 ½ / 6 ¼ becomes 75/2 x 4/25.
• 300/50 or 6.
• 3. Use the estimate to check your answer.
1-6 Divide a whole number by a mixed
number.
• Same as above, just convert the whole number to a fraction by
putting it over 1. 16 / 1 3/5 becomes 16/1 divided by 1 3/5.
• 1. Estimate 16 / 2 = 8
• 2. 16/1 / 8/5
• 3. 16/1 x 5/8
• 4. 80/8 or 10.
• Do the same for a mixed number by whole number. (Convert all of
them to fractions.
Guided Practice
• 1. 20 / 2 2/3
• 2. 12 ½ / 6
1-7 Solving Multistep Problems
• When solving multistep problems with fractions or decimals
• Decide the steps to use to solve the problem
• Choose the correct operations
• Identify he info you need from the problem.
• Use that info
• Calculate
• Interpret the solution and check the answer is reasonable.
• Example: The number of runners who finish the marathon is 320. Runners donate
2.50 per mile. How much total money is donated.
• 1. We need of total miles, to multiply times 2.50 to get total money.
• 2. So we need to multiply number of runners by 26.2 miles (length of a marathon). This gives
us a total of 8384 miles.
• 3. We then multiply that by 2.50 to get a total of 20,960 dollars.