Snap a chocolate bar into 4 equal pieces and eat 3 — you ate 3/4 of it. A fraction names part of a whole: the bottom says how many equal pieces, the top says how many you have.
A fraction is a fair share
When we cut one whole thing into equal pieces, a fraction tells us how many pieces we mean. The bottom number (the denominator) says how many equal pieces the whole was cut into. The top number (the numerator) says how many of those pieces we have.
A pizza cut into 4 equal slices. You eat 3 slices → you ate 3/4 of the pizza.
Fractions only work when the pieces are the same size. Half a pizza means two matching pieces — not one big piece and one tiny one!
3/4 = 0.75
Change the top and bottom numbers and watch the bar fill. The denominator cuts the bar; the numerator colors it in.
- Take a strip of paper and fold it in half. Unfold and shade one part — that is 1/2.
- Fold a second strip in half twice. Unfold and count the sections: there are 4. Shade three of them — that is 3/4.
- Hold the strips side by side. Which shaded part is longer, 1/2 or 3/4?
What you should see: You made real fractions with your hands and saw that 3/4 is more than 1/2 because more equal parts are shaded.