Main content
3rd grade
Course: 3rd grade > Unit 6
Lesson 1: Comparing fractions- Comparing fractions with > and < symbols
- Comparing fractions visually
- Compare fractions with fraction models
- Compare fractions on the number line
- Comparing fractions with the same denominator
- Compare fractions with the same denominator
- Comparing unit fractions
- Comparing fractions with the same numerator
- Compare fractions with the same numerator
- Compare fractions with the same numerator or denominator
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Comparing fractions with the same denominator
Lindsay compares fractions with the same denominator. She compares one pair of fractions with visuals and another pair without visuals. Created by Lindsay Spears.
Want to join the conversation?
- So...
3 9
_ < _ ?
4 4
I think that is somewhat correct, or saying
3/4 < 9/4 .(12 votes) - so any big number is the answer?(5 votes)
- yep, if the numerator is bigger its bigger that the one that has the same denominator but smaller numerator.(4 votes)
- can you show me my grades(3 votes)
- your grades are 0000000000000%(1 vote)
- I can show you how to do The really challenging Fraction numerators and other stuff.(2 votes)
- Why is Lindsay so weird(2 votes)
- why do we have to do to many word problem(2 votes)
- so 3/8 is larger than 2/8 because it is 1/8 larger boik(1 vote)
- Another way of answering this question is 3/8=0.375 and 2/8=0.25. 0.375 is bigger that 0.25. Neat, eh? :)(2 votes)
- what are you doing(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Let's compare 2/4 and 3/4. First let's think about
what these fractions mean. 2/4 means we have some
whole, and we've split it into four equal size pieces,
and we get two of those pieces. Maybe we can think about
pizza for an example. We split a pizza into
four equal size pieces, and we ate two of them. 3/4 means that same whole, that same pizza was again split into
four equal size pieces, but this time, what's
different is we got three of the pieces. So maybe from that description,
we can start to think about which one is larger,
but let's draw them also just to be sure that we can
decide which one is larger. So for 2/4, we're gonna have a fraction, maybe it's a pizza, and
it's gonna be divided, split into four equal size pieces. These may not be perfect lines, but should represent
four equal size pieces. And we get two of those pieces. So this represents 2/4, two out of four. 3/4, again, will be the same
as the four equal size pieces, but this time, we get three of the four. So, one, two, three of the four pieces. And this will represent 3/4. Now we can look at it
visually and see very clearly that 3/4 is greater,
or takes up more space, or we can say that 2/4 is less than 3/4. Remember this is the less than symbol 'cause we always want
this open, bigger side facing our larger number. In this case, it's
facing the second number. So we'll say 2/4 is less than 3/4. Each of these fourths is the same size, so two of them is less
than three of the fourths. Here we can try one more, but this time, let's don't draw the picture. Lets' just think about what they mean and see if we can figure it out. So for 5/8, we have a whole, and it's been divided
into eight equal pieces. For 3/8, same thing, eight equal pieces. But here in 5/8, we get
five of those pieces, and in 3/8, we get three of the pieces. So the pieces are the same size. They're eighths on both side. These are eighths, and these are eighths, but here we have five of the
eights, and here we have three. So if the pieces are the same size, five pieces is greater than three pieces or 5/8 is greater than 3/8. And here our open end, our bigger side is still facing our bigger number, but our bigger number is first this time, so this is the greater than symbol. 5/8 is greater than 3/8.