Introduction
What is a fraction? In math, fractions are a way to represent
parts of a whole number. Imagine you have a pizza for dinner. That
pizza can be cut into any number of pieces so that everyone at dinner
can have a piece. Each slice is a part, or fraction, of the whole pizza.
You can add fractions – if your friend had two slices of pizza and then has another. You can subtract them, too – if there are two slices left and you take one.
But adding fractions and subtracting them can be challenging. There are
certain steps you have to do to make sure you get the correct answer.
This lesson will walk you through those steps and show you that:
- Anyone can read and write fractions
- Adding fractions is easy if they have common denominators
- Subtracting fractions with common denominators is a snap
- Working with improper fractions and mixed numbers doesn’t have to be scary