Fractions Of Whole Numbers Worksheet printable pdf download

Fractions Of Whole Numbers Worksheet

Fractions of Whole Numbers

Consider the following problem: Suppose that a class of twenty students took

a math test and only 5 students made a passing grade. To describe such a

situation one will say that one fourth of the class passed and three-fourth

failed. The class is considered as a unit. We ”break” this unit into four

groups each consisting of ﬁve students. One of the group consists of those

students who passed the test and the other three consist of those students

who failed the test. Considerations like these lead to the introduction of

fractions.

The word fraction comes from the Latin word fractius which means ”to

break”. When an object is divided into an equal number of parts then each

part is called a fraction.

There are diﬀerent ways of writing a fraction. For example, two ﬁfths of an

object can be written as

a common fraction:

a decimal 0.4

a percentage 40%

We will learn about percentages and decimals later.

Now, let us have a closer look at the common fraction:

The number a is called the numerator and represents the number of parts

in consideration.

The number b is called the denominator and represents how many equal

parts in the unit. Keep in mind that this number can never be zero since

division by zero is undeﬁned.

Example 18.1

Show that any whole number is a fraction.

Solution.

If a is a whole number then we can write a as the fraction

Diﬀerent Types of Fractions

There are 3 diﬀerent types of fractions:

Proper Fractions

Proper fractions have the numerator part smaller than the denominator part,

Fractions Of Whole Numbers Worksheet