I'm sure you are hungry by now. So is Mayor 1 and he's waiting for you to go in. Here's today's special at the Fracteria.
Soda:
$ 1/2
Burger: $ 1 1/8
Fries: $ 3/4
Burger: $ 1 1/8
Fries: $ 3/4
Mayor 1 is
stumped. He asks 4/6, "How much is that? How much
do I owe?"
Well, I'm not sure. I'll have to figure it out. Why dont you take a crack at it.
"OK," said the mayor. "Here goes..."
The burger costs 1 and an eighth. I'm good at adding whole numbers. So I'll put the 1 here. Next I'll add the fractions.
1/2 + 1/8 + 3/4. I add up the numerators 1 + 1 + 3 equals 5. The numerators 2 + 8 + 4 add up to 14. See I told I'm good at adding natural numbers. So what I owe - drumroll please - is 1 + 5/14.
4/6 stares befuddled. What? I wouldn't give that to the wait person.
Why not?
Because it's WRONG! Look. If we add fraction bars you will quickly see that 5/14ths can't be right.
"If you ate all that candy, how much would you eat?" asked 4/6ths. If I eat the whole bar plus 3/4 of a bar, plus another half, I'd eat more than two bars."
That's right! Now you are on the right track. Now lets get the exact amount.
"Well, like all citizens of Fractionville I would use a fraction calculator to find out," replied 1. "So, let's try it," replied 4/6ths. "Click on the image below."
Meanwhile 4/6 and Mayor 1 savored their lunch (the mayor ate his whole lunch while 4/6 ate 2/3rds) so it was time to move on. They walked out of the Fracteria and went next door to the Darts arena.
Well, I'm not sure. I'll have to figure it out. Why dont you take a crack at it.
"OK," said the mayor. "Here goes..."
The burger costs 1 and an eighth. I'm good at adding whole numbers. So I'll put the 1 here. Next I'll add the fractions.
1/2 + 1/8 + 3/4. I add up the numerators 1 + 1 + 3 equals 5. The numerators 2 + 8 + 4 add up to 14. See I told I'm good at adding natural numbers. So what I owe - drumroll please - is 1 + 5/14.
4/6 stares befuddled. What? I wouldn't give that to the wait person.
Why not?
Because it's WRONG! Look. If we add fraction bars you will quickly see that 5/14ths can't be right.
"If you ate all that candy, how much would you eat?" asked 4/6ths. If I eat the whole bar plus 3/4 of a bar, plus another half, I'd eat more than two bars."
That's right! Now you are on the right track. Now lets get the exact amount.
"Well, like all citizens of Fractionville I would use a fraction calculator to find out," replied 1. "So, let's try it," replied 4/6ths. "Click on the image below."
"So I owe
$19/8 which is equivalent to $2 3/8. "That's
cool. But what if I don't have a calculator
handy?" asks Mayor 1. 4/6ths suggests a
method that will work. "Notice that 1/2 and
1/8 = 4/8 + 1/8 = 5/8. So now you have 5/8 + 1
which gives you $1 and 5/8. Now we still need
to add 3/4 which can clone itself to become
6/8. So now you have 5/8 + 6/8
which is 11/8.
Since 11/8ths is improper, you need to do the proper thing and turn it into a mixed number which is 1 3/8. Almost forgot about the 1 I need to add on. So you owe $2 3/8," Mayor 1 sighs and says "There's gotta be a better way to handle this money stuff."
"Ahh," says 4/6. Your wish may coming soon via another town in the woods on the other side of the mountains."
"So here's 3 dollars. Keep the change as a tip," Mayor 1 says as he hands 3 crisp dollar bills to the wait person. " Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with a "quarter.'"
"Quarter?" says 4/6, "1 dollar minus 4/5ths of a dollar is not a quarter. It's 1/5 of a dollar or 20 cents." "Do you see why?"
"Not sure," replied the Mayor.
4/6ths continued, "1 - 4/5 is the same as 5/5 - 4/5, because 1 and 5/5 are equivalent, because they belong to the same family. "Remember how you "shook yourself" to become 5/5 in the movie?"
"That's right," said Mayor 1. "I'm the same as 5/5."
Since 11/8ths is improper, you need to do the proper thing and turn it into a mixed number which is 1 3/8. Almost forgot about the 1 I need to add on. So you owe $2 3/8," Mayor 1 sighs and says "There's gotta be a better way to handle this money stuff."
"Ahh," says 4/6. Your wish may coming soon via another town in the woods on the other side of the mountains."
"So here's 3 dollars. Keep the change as a tip," Mayor 1 says as he hands 3 crisp dollar bills to the wait person. " Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with a "quarter.'"
"Quarter?" says 4/6, "1 dollar minus 4/5ths of a dollar is not a quarter. It's 1/5 of a dollar or 20 cents." "Do you see why?"
"Not sure," replied the Mayor.
4/6ths continued, "1 - 4/5 is the same as 5/5 - 4/5, because 1 and 5/5 are equivalent, because they belong to the same family. "Remember how you "shook yourself" to become 5/5 in the movie?"
"That's right," said Mayor 1. "I'm the same as 5/5."
Meanwhile 4/6 and Mayor 1 savored their lunch (the mayor ate his whole lunch while 4/6 ate 2/3rds) so it was time to move on. They walked out of the Fracteria and went next door to the Darts arena.