Is 1/5 greater than 2/7?
To compare two fractions, such as 1/5 and 2/7, there are two main common methods: the first one involves finding a common denominator, and the other one is to convert the fractions directly into decimal values.
1) Using the same denominator
- Multiply the numerator of the first fraction with the denominator of the second fraction: 1 × 7 = 7
- Multiply the numerator of the second fraction with the denominator of the first fraction 2 × 5 = 10
- Multiply the denominators of both fractions together: 5 × 7 = 35
- Rewrite both fractions with the new common denominator:
- 1/5 = 7/35
- 2/7 = 10/35
With a common denominator, the comparison becomes much simpler.
Since 7 is smaller than 10, we can conclude that 1/5 is less than 2/7.
2) Converting to decimal
We can also simply convert the fractions into decimal values:
- 1 divided by 5 is equal to 0.2
- 2 divided by 7 is equal to 0.28571428571429
Since 0.2 is smaller than 0.28571428571429, it means that 1/5 is less than 2/7.