Fractions

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A fraction is part of an entire object.

Fourths, Eighths, and Tenths….

Converting Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers.

There are times when we have to change improper fractions to mixed numbers. What is an improper fraction? What is a mixed number?

Recall that a fraction is made up of a numerator and a denominator, separated by a dividing line as shown in Fig.1 below.

Both a and b are integers, and b cannot be a 0.

A proper fraction will have a numerator that is smaller than the denominator.

Examples of proper fractions:

Proper Fraction

NUMERATOR

DENOMINATOR

An improper fraction on the other hand, is a fraction that has a numerator that is larger than the denominator.

In all the examples below you can see that the value of the numerator a is greater than the value of the denominator b.

Examples of improper fractions include:

Improper Fraction

A mixed number has two parts – a whole number part and a fractional part.

Examples of mixed numbers include:

Mixed Number

In other words, a mix number is the sum of its whole number and its fraction.

comes from adding

How do we change improper fractions to mixed numbers ?

To change an improper fraction to a mixed number,

we divide the numerator by the denominator. We can then use the result to write the mixed number.

Example 1: Change to a mixed number.

Solution: First we divide 7 by 4.

As you can see, 4 goes into 7 only once. We have a remainder of 3. So we have the following:

Our fraction is therefore equivalent to the mixed number

Example 2: Change to a mixed number.

In this example, 7 goes into 29 four times, and we have a remainder of 1.

We have:

Therefore the improper fraction is equivalent to the mixed number

Solution: First we divide 29 by 7.

Try It:

Change the following improper fractions to mixed numbers:

Answer :

Basic Math: Fractions by Open University Malaysia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://oer.oum.edu.my. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.oum.edu.my.