Understanding Improper Fractions with Pizza

Hey Bailey! Let’s talk about improper fractions using something we all love - pizza!

Imagine you have a whole pizza that has been cut into 8 equal slices. If you eat 8 slices, you’ve eaten 1 whole pizza. But what if you have more than one pizza? Let’s say you have 1 and a half pizzas. This means you have 12 slices in total because:

• 1 whole pizza = 8 slices
• Half pizza = 4 slices

So, 8 slices (from the whole pizza) + 4 slices (from the half pizza) = 12 slices. Now we have an improper fraction.

An improper fraction is when you have more slices than what can fit in one whole pizza. In this example, we can represent the pizzas as an improper fraction:

12 slices / 8 slices = 12/8

Let’s simplify it to understand it better:

If you divide 12 by 8, it equals 1 with a remainder. This means:

• 1 whole pizza
• and you have 4 slices left over.

Since 8 slices make up 1 pizza, those 4 slices left can be expressed as a fraction of the pizza:

4 slices / 8 slices = 4/8 = 1/2

So, 12 slices can be written as:

1 (whole pizza) + 1/2 (half pizza) = 1 1/2

This means that the improper fraction 12/8 can also be shown as a mixed number of 1 and 1/2.

So next time you think of fractions, just think of it in terms of pizza! An improper fraction is just like saying you have more pizza slices than can fit in a whole pizza!