| Say you wanted to divide 5 pizzas into 2 equal piles. | ||
| How many are in each pile? | ||
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| We have a problem. | ||
| We can put two pizzas in each pile, | ||
| but we have one left over. | ||
| What do we do with it? | ||
| We could just call it a leftover or remainder. | ||
| We could say 5 divided by 2 equals 2 with 1 left over. | ||
| That's OK, I guess. But it's not a real answer. | ||
| The real answer is to cut that last pizza in half! | ||
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| Now we have the same amount in each pile. | ||
| There's NOTHING left over! | ||
| So how much is in each pile? | ||
| In each pile we have 2 whole pizzas plus 1 piece out of 2. | ||
| Hey, that last part sounds like a FRACTION! | ||
| It sure does. | ||
| We have ... | ||
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You might not don't know how to add these two things together |
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| to make one number (yet). | ||
| For now, just write them next to each other like this: | ||
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| This thing is made up of a whole number AND a fraction. | ||
| We call it a MIXED NUMBER. | ||
| Since we are big time math types now, | ||
| we can write: | ||
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| Example: | ||
| Divide 7 into 3 equal piles: | ||
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| Did you catch that 1/3 part? | ||
| Here's a toughie ... | ||
| Example: | ||
| Divide 8 into 3 equal piles: | ||
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| Oops! This time we have 2 left over. | ||
| What do we do? | ||
| If we had only 1 left over we could cut it into 3 equal pieces. | ||
| Then put 1 piece in each pile. | ||
| Here we do that to each one of the 2 that are left over: | ||
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| So what do we have in each pile? | ||
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| We can add those pieces together: | ||
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| So when we divide 8 into 3 piles, | ||
| we have ... | ||
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| OK, here's the deal ... | ||
| We had 2 left over. | ||
| We divided them into 3 piles. | ||
| The parts in each pile added up to: | ||
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| HERE'S A NEWS FLASH ... | ||
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That's how leftovers always work! |
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| Example: | ||
| Divide 2 into 5 piles: | ||
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| In each pile we have: | ||
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| So when we do 2 divided into 5 piles, | ||
| we get: | ||
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| Pop Quiz: | ||
| What do we get if we divide 3 into 7 piles? | ||
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copyright 2005 Bruce Kirkpatrick |
