Is 5/2 greater than 3/1?
To compare two fractions, such as 5/2 and 3/1, 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: 5 × 1 = 5
- Multiply the numerator of the second fraction with the denominator of the first fraction 3 × 2 = 6
- Multiply the denominators of both fractions together: 2 × 1 = 2
- Rewrite both fractions with the new common denominator:
- 5/2 = 5/2
- 3/1 = 6/2
With a common denominator, the comparison becomes much simpler.
Since 5 is smaller than 6, we can conclude that 5/2 is less than 3/1.
2) Converting to decimal
We can also simply convert the fractions into decimal values:
- 5 divided by 2 is equal to 2.5
- 3 divided by 1 is equal to 3
Since 2.5 is smaller than 3, it means that 5/2 is less than 3/1.