Fractions give us a way to talk about the amounts that are in between whole numbers (whole numbers are numbers like 0, 1, 8, 12). To understand fractions, think of a circle (like a pizza) broken into some number of equal sections. A fraction compares two amounts: the number of equal pieces within the whole, and some number of pieces within that whole.
The top number in a fraction, the numerator, tells you how many sections have been chosen. The denominator, which is on the bottom of the fraction, tells you how many equal parts the whole has been divided into.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Fractions in the Kitchen
Fractions are common in recipes—the instructions for how to cook or bake something. Bakers need to know enough about fractions to make sure their measurements are correct.
Now meet two girls who want to use a recipe to bake cupcakes. Click to watch the video in which they decide how to make more cupcakes than the recipe describes, then continue reading below.
As you can see, sometimes you need to double or triple a recipe in order to make a larger batch of cupcakes or a bigger cake. But how can you double or triple a fractional ingredient? In this lesson, you will learn how to do just that.
As you work on this lesson, you will solve some math problems. You should have paper and a pencil ready.