Fractions (Part 3)

Calculating a fraction of an amount

It is a fairly common life skill to need to work out a fraction of an amount. If we are dealing with a unit fraction (where the numerator is one) it is easy. For example, to work out 1/2 of an amount, divide by 2; to work out 1/5 of an amount, divide by 5; to work out 1/27 of an amount, divide by 27. This video shows how to calculate a non-unit fraction of an amount, using the bar model method.

 

Finding the Whole

Finally, we can also use the bar model approach to work out the whole if we start by knowing a fraction of the amount.