Elaboration on this Achievement Objective
This means students will understand the meaning of the digits in a fraction, how the fraction can be written in numerals and words, or said, and the relative order and size of fractions with common denominators (bottom numbers). Fundamental concepts are that fractions are iterations (repeats) of a unit fraction, for example, 3/4 = 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 and 4/3 = 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 . This means the numerator (top number) is a count and the denominator tells the size of the parts, for example, in 4/3 there are four parts. The parts are thirds created by splitting one into three equal parts. This means that fractions can be greater than one, for example, 4/3 = 1 1/3, and that fractions have a counting order if the denominators are the same, for example, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, 4/3... Note that whole numbers can be written as fractions, for example = 1. Fractions in everyday usage include halves, thirds, quarters (fourths), fifths, eighths, and tenths.