Lesson 5 – Writing Improper Fractions as Mixed Fractions

Objective:

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to write improper fractions as mixed fractions or mixed numbers.

Improper fractions can be written as whole numbers and proper fractions. This is done by checking the number of times the denominator is contained in the numerator and the remainder written as a fraction.

Example 1

Change 7/2 into a mixed fraction.

Solution

7 divided by 2 is 3 remainder 1

The whole number becomes 3 and the proper fraction will be the remainder over the divisor i.e. 3 1/2

3 is the whole number and 1/2   is the proper fraction. Therefore, the answer is 3 1/2 .

Example 2

Write 12/5  as a mixed fraction.

Solution

12 divides 5 is 2 remainder 2. The whole number is 2 and the remainder is 2. The remainder is divided by the denominator. This can be shown as 12 ÷ 5 = 2 remainder 2. This gives us: => 2 2/5

Example 3

Write  10/3  as a mixed fraction.

Solution

3 divides 10 three times remainder 1. The whole number is 3 and the remainder becomes the numerator of the proper fraction. This gives us: => 3 1/3