Why Learn Fractions?

Date: 8/13/96 at 17:52:18
From: Anonymous
Subject: Why Learn Fractions?

What is the point of learning fractions? 

	Monique and Selena

Date: 8/14/96 at 0:21:19
From: Doctor Paul
Subject: Re: Why Learn Fractions?

Fractions are incredibly useful!  I am so thankful we have them. They 
make our lives so much easier. Let me give you you an example:

1)  You are at the supermarket.  You see that the price of lemons is 
60 cents a pound.  You want to know how much 1 and a half pounds of 
lemons will cost you.  Well, if you convert both to fractions and 
multiply them it's easy to figure it out:

 6       3      18
---- * ----- = ----
 10      2      20

18/20 reduces to 9/10, or 90 cents.

There are so many other examples. Fractions appear everywhere.
I hope this helps you see the purpose of fractions.

Regards,

-Doctor Paul,  The Math Forum
 Check out our web site!  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/