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EQUIVALENT FRACTIONS Lesson 21 Section 2 |
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This is called clearing of decimals.
Solution. To reduce a fraction, both the numerator and denominator must be whole numbers. To make 1.5 into the whole number 15, multiply it by 10. (Lesson 3, Question 2.) Multiply 2 by 10 also:
15 and 20 have a common divisor 5.
1.5 is to 2 as 3 is to 4. Therefore, if we ask, "What ratio has 1.5 to 2?", we can answer 1.5 is three fourths of 2.
Solution. To decide by which power of 10 to multiply, look at the number with the most number of decimal places; in this case, .004. Therefore we will multiply both numbers by 1000:
4 goes into 200 fifty times. As for the ratio of .2 to .004, it is the same as 200 to 4, or 50 to 1. .2 is fifty times .004. We discover this important fact:
Example 3. What ratio has .07 to 1.4? Answer. Clear of decimals. Multiply both numbers by 100:
.07 is to 1.4 in the same ratio as 1 is to 20. .07 is the twentieth part of 1.4. Please "turn" the page and do some Problems. or Continue on to the next Lesson. Introduction | Home | Table of Contents Please make a donation to keep TheMathPage online. Copyright © 2001-2007 Lawrence Spector Questions or comments? E-mail: themathpage@nyc.rr.com |