Candy Store
Once in Fraction Arcade 2/3rds takes you to the candy store.
Merchants at the candy store have a difficult time with this. That’s because before fractions came to live in Number Town all transactions were done with dollar bills. For example, if the clothier charged $25 for a shirt or blouse and a customer paid with 3 ten dollar bills, then the merchant knew to subtract 25 from 30 and give the customer $5 in change. That’s just the way it was done. Simple arithmetic adding and subtracting natural numbers.
But now all that has become more complicated. Let me tell you a story. One day 1/4 came into the store to buy this chocolate bar . but all he had with him was $ 1/4. The merchant (24) scratched his head and said angrily: "What kind of nonsense is this? You don’t have enough money!” What do you mean said 1/4? Not only is it enough, but I also get change. The merchant 5 was dumbfounded. I don’t believe it. To be fair, the poor merchant only dealt with whole numbers before these strange creatures (fractions) arrived in Number Town so he didn’t have a problem. “Let me show you,” said 1/4. “Do you know that I can take on different forms? Well, money can take on different forms as well. And each new form has the same value. Watch me change into different forms.” 24 watched as 1/4 wiggled and turned into 2/8, then 3/12. He continued to turn into 4/16 and 5/20. “That should be enough, he said. Now lets look at the different forms the price of the candy can take.” The card wiggled out 2/10, 3/15 and 4/20. Lets see which forms we can compare. Notice that the card and I stopped their maneuvers when our bottoms were the same. My money stopped at 5/20ths and the candy bar stopped at 4/20ths. Now do you see that I have enough money?
Remember the cloning number is the number you multiply both the numerator AND denominator so that both fractions will have the same bottom number.
1/4 informs 24: In order to find the difference between two amounts you have to find a common denominator.” “Denominator? What is that? that’s a fancy name for the bottom number. Just in case you are interested the top number is called the numerator.
Scratch
show bars representing 5/20 and 4/20. I actually have 1/20 more than what you charge for the candy bar. So you owe me money. 24 says “let’s see. 5/20 - 4/20 is 1/20.” 1/4 replies “you owe me a nickel which is 1/20 of a dollar!” “Indobitable, I’m sure,” said the flabbergasted merchant, 24. Now it’s finally time to go eat. Fracteria next stop.