Question

How do you know if 5/9 is bigger then 11/20

Answer 1

There are a few ways.

We can convert both of them to decimals.


`\sf(5)/(9)\rightarrow0.\overline{5}`


`\sf(11)/(20)\rightarrow0.55`

As you can see, 5/9 has a 5 that goes on forever, and 11/20 has just two 5's, therefore 5/9 is bigger than 11/20.

Another way to do this is to convert both of them to the same denominator.

Just find the least common multiple between 9 and 20, which is 180.


`\sf(5)/(9)\rightarrow(5*20)/(9*20)\rightarrow(100)/(180)`


`\sf(11)/(20)\rightarrow(11*9)/(20*9)\rightarrow(99)/(180)`

Since 100 is greater than 99, 5/9 is greater than 11/20.