Question

How do you divide a number by a fraction?

Answer 1

KCF:

• Keep the numerator
• Change the sign from division to multiplication
• "Flip" the denominator into it's reciprocal

Explanation:

Dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying the numerator by that fraction's reciprocal. The KCF thing above is a nice way to remember it early on, because that's essentially what's going on.

Say you have 5/(1/2). If you wanted to perform the division, you'd keep the 5, swap the division sign to a multiplication sign, and then swap (1/2) into it's reciprocal; which is 2.

So:

• 5/(1/2) = 5•2 =10

This holds true for any division really and even any number if you're looking to mess things up a bit. I'll throw some more examples at you just to showcase it some more:

• 6/(1/3) = 6•3 = 18
• 3/(3/4) = 3•(4/3) = 3
• 2/(5/4) = 2•(4/5) = 8/5
• (3/2)/(7/6) = (3/2)•(6/7) = 9/7
• (5/7)/(2/9) = (5/7)•(9/2) = 45/14
• 4/5 = 4•(1/5)

Additionally, you could also go backwards with this knowledge. Like:

• 5•9 = 5/(1/9)

Why would you want to do that? Idk. But it's good to know nonetheless... I think that's about it. Comment with more questions if you need/want to but otherwise good luck with your studies.

Answer 2

When dividing fractions these are the steps you will take:

1. The first number in the expression stays the same (if it is a whole number then you may just place a one in the denominator and keep the numerator the same as the whole number

2. Change the division sign into a multiplication sign

3. Take the reciprocal (switch the places of numerator and denominator) of the second number in the expression

4. Multiply across (Numerators multiply with each other. Denominators multiply with each other)

Hope this helped!

~Just a girl in love with Shawn Mendes