kids encyclopedia robot

Fractions facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A fraction is a special kind of number that helps us understand parts of a whole. Imagine you have a pizza, and you cut it into equal slices. A fraction tells you how many of those slices you have, compared to the total number of slices.

When we write fractions, we usually see one number on top of another, separated by a line. For example, \tfrac{1}{4}, 1⁄4 and 1/4 all show the same fraction. This fraction means "one quarter."

The number on top is called the numerator. It tells you how many parts you have. The number on the bottom is called the denominator. It tells you the total number of equal parts that make up the whole.

For example, in the fraction \tfrac{1}{4}:

  • The 1 is the numerator.
  • The 4 is the denominator.

This means you have 1 part out of a total of 4 equal parts.

Cake fractions
A cake with one quarter removed. The remaining 3⁄4 of the cake has been divided into two pieces.
Frac dice d6
Fraction dice.

What Fractions Show Us

Fractions are super useful in everyday life! They help us describe situations where things are divided into equal pieces.

  • Imagine a room where \tfrac{1}{4} of the people are girls. This means for every 4 people in the room, 1 of them is a girl.
  • Think about a cake cut into 4 equal slices. Each slice is \tfrac{1}{4} of the whole cake. If you eat 2 slices, you've eaten \tfrac{2}{4} of the cake. This is the same as eating \tfrac{1}{2} (one-half) of the cake!
Fraction operator
A scaled fraction used in step-by-step math problems.

Fractions in Math

Fracciones
Fractions shown as parts of a pie chart.

In mathematics, a fraction is a way to show how one number is divided by another. When both numbers are whole numbers, we call this a rational number. For example, \tfrac{1}{2} is a rational number.

A fraction like \tfrac{1}{2} simply means "one divided by two." If you do that division, you get 0.5 as a decimal.

Multiplying Fractions

Multiplying fractions is easier than you might think! To multiply two fractions, you just multiply the numerators (the top numbers) together, and then multiply the denominators (the bottom numbers) together.

For example: 2⁄4 x 3⁄4

1. Multiply the numerators: 2 x 3 = 6 2. Multiply the denominators: 4 x 4 = 16

So, 2⁄4 x 3⁄4 = 6⁄16.

You can often make the answer simpler by dividing both the numerator and the denominator by a common number. In this case, both 6 and 16 can be divided by 2. 6 ÷ 2 = 3 16 ÷ 2 = 8

So, 6⁄16 simplifies to 3⁄8.

Dividing Fractions

To divide one fraction by another, you use a special trick! You multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction. The reciprocal of a fraction is just that fraction flipped upside down.

For example, to find \tfrac{1}{2} divided by \tfrac{1}{2}: 1. Find the reciprocal of the second fraction (\tfrac{1}{2}). The reciprocal of \tfrac{1}{2} is Failed to parse (Missing <code>texvc</code> executable. Please see math/README to configure.): \tfrac{2}{1} (or just 2). 2. Now, multiply the first fraction by this reciprocal: \tfrac{1}{2} x 2 = 1.

So, \tfrac{1}{2} divided by \tfrac{1}{2} equals 1.

Related pages

Images for kids

  • ContinuedFractionGeneralCaseExample

    Fraction numbers used in addition in lines.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Fracción para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Fractions Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.