Question

Why is 1-6 greater than 1-8 but less than 1-3?

Answer 1

Buy 3 pies (or draw circles on paper)... Cut the pies (or draw lines in your circles) to evenly divide in 3, 6, 8.... Now take one slide from each out in a plate (or if you chose to draw, only colour in one slice).

Which looks bigger?



(It should be 1/3)

Basically, representing a number as a fraction represents a number (rank, odds, etc) out of a total number.
If you have 5 friends over. You could have 1/6 of pie (because you will have cut in 6 so that you and5 friends could have a slice). Whereas, if you only invited 2 friends, you could have 1/3 of the pie yourself (more pie ,remember that you cut the pie in 3 four you and 2 friends ).
Now try 1/2, 1/3, 1/4

Answer 2

Because when subtracting a larger number from a smaller number you end up with a negative number. The "higher" the negative number really means that it is a smaller value. Therefore -8 < -5 < -2