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Lesson 3: What fractions mean

# Identifying numerators and denominators

Sal identifying numerators and denominators in fractions.  Created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

## Want to join the conversation?

• What is a denominator and why is it called that?
• you could think of it as being 2 neghbors, numerator and denominator, denominator living on floor 1 and numerator on floor 2!
• Wait...So can you reduce a fraction?
• yes why not you can do cancllation and reduce a fration
• Can someone give me an in-depth explanation of what are numerators and denominators? Give me a definitive definition of a fraction!
I am confused...
• The NUMERATOR is on top and the DENOMINATOR is on the bottom. Another way to put it is in the numerator the U in numerator is like "Up"
and the D in Denominator is like "Down."

P.s, if this helps anyone please give it an up-vote
• the denominator is the number at the bottom right?
• yes denominator at the bottom and numerator at the top
• So.....can you make the Denominator smaller ?+_+
• As a more in-depth answer, you can, but only if its divisible by two or a larger number, but ONLY if the numerator is divisible by the SAME number the denominator is.
• Why is the bottom of the fraction called a denominator?
• In Latin:
"denominator" = that which names

The denominator of a fraction tells you the name of the part (one half, one third, one six thousand three hundred seventy first, etc.)
The numerator tells you how many of those parts there are.
• I get lost between the difference of "The number of equal parts in all the wholes" and "The number of equal parts in one whole" in the practice question. Can someone explain it to me? thanks!
• I just looked at a couple of the practice problems. The denominator = the number of equal parts that make one whole unit. The numerator is the number of parts you are counting. The option for "the number of equal parts in all the wholes" appears to be a false option to see if you understand the meaning for numerator/denominator. It really doesn't fit the definition of either one.
• Why is a numerator called a numerator and why is it o n the top?
• It's just the name it's been given same for Denominator although Denominator seems to also be called the Dominant number because it's the Total of the Parts/Pieces/Objects and the Whole Shape, but i wouldn't think too much about the names, lots of things are given names just to help identify them.

We don't know why Numerator is on top either it just is, i guess it does make more sense to be the top number since that's the number you're taking from the Total Parts/Pieces, that's where our mind would go first it would be like "So i'm taking or adding this From/To this" that's my guess :)
• I've been trying to understand these questions, I continue to level down on being able to recognize fractions. I'm not getting it.can someone break this down for me please.