Whose slice is bigger?
Is 1/2 a pizza more than 2/3? Cut the same pizza two ways and compare, and you find 2/3 wins. Comparing fractions is figuring out which share is actually larger even when the numbers look different.
Same-size pieces are easy to compare
If two fractions have the same denominator, the pieces are the same size — so the one with more pieces is bigger. 5/8 beats 3/8 because five of the same-size piece is more than three.
The bigger the bottom, the smaller the piece
1/8 is SMALLER than 1/3. Cutting a cake into 8 pieces makes each slice smaller than cutting it into 3. More sharing means smaller shares!
Simulation · Fraction bar
3/4 = 0.75
Keep the numerator at 1 and raise the denominator — watch each piece shrink.
Lab · Fraction line-up
- Draw a number line from 0 to 1.
- Mark the middle — that is 1/2.
- Now mark where 1/4 goes (halfway between 0 and 1/2) and where 3/4 goes (halfway between 1/2 and 1).
- Check: do your marks go in the order 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 from left to right?
What you should see: You placed fractions on a number line and saw that fractions are numbers with their own spots between 0 and 1.