# Urgent Fraction Help!!

• Jul 6th 2008, 03:11 AM
jeri2008
Urgent Fraction Help!!
Place the following fractions into order from highest to lowest

7/4 1/6 7/2
• Jul 6th 2008, 03:17 AM
Matt Westwood
Easiest way to compare 2 fractions is to give them a common denominator.

The quickest way to do that is to multiply top and bottom of the one fraction with the bottom of the other, and vice versa.

So for 7/4 and 1/6, you multiply top and bottom of 7/4 by 6, and top and bottom of 1/6 by 4.

This gives you 42 / 24 compared with 4/24 and the ordering of these is obvious.

It occurs to me there's a quick way of doing it by eye in this case:

7/4 is between 1 and 2, 7/2 is between 3 and 4 and 1/6 is between 0 and 1.
• Jul 6th 2008, 03:18 AM
jeri2008
So thats the order then?
• Jul 6th 2008, 03:34 AM
Simplicity
Lets change it to decimal numbers.

$\frac74 = 1.75$

$\frac16 =0.167$ To 3 decimal places.

$\frac72 = 3.5$

Can you place this in order from highest to lowest?
• Jul 6th 2008, 03:37 AM
jeri2008
...
So it's 7/2 7/4 1/6

It's not actually for me, it's for someone elses job application lol

So I'm only really looking for the answer and not a full explanation lol

But thanx anyway!
• Jul 6th 2008, 03:39 AM
Simplicity
Quote:

Originally Posted by jeri2008
So it's 7/2 7/4 1/6

Yes, that is correct. (Clapping)

$\text{Highest: }\frac72, \frac74, \frac16 \text{ :Lowest}$