If you’re anything like me, you were probably taught in school that a fraction is a division problem. For example, if I were to ask you what 1/4 is, you would probably say that it is one divided by four, or four divided by one, or even four groups of one. All of these would be correct, but they would only give you a part of the story.
When we talk about fractions, we are really talking about equal parts. So, when we say that 1/4 is one divided by four, we are really saying that one fourth is equal to one divided by four, or that four fourths are equal to one.
This can be a little confusing, so let’s look at an example. Let’s say we have a pizza and we want to cut it into four equal slices. We would cut the pizza into four equal parts, and each part would be one fourth of the pizza.
Now, let’s say we have a different pizza and we want to cut it into eight equal slices. We would cut the pizza into eight equal parts, and each part would be one eighth of the pizza.
Now, let’s say we have a third pizza and we want to cut it into sixteen equal slices. We would cut the pizza into sixteen equal parts, and each part would be one sixteenth of the pizza.
As you can see, the number of slices we want to cut the pizza into will determine the size of each slice. So, if we want to know what number is between 5/8 and 1/4, we need to figure out how many slices we would need to cut the pizza into to get 5/8 of the pizza, and how many slices we would need to cut the pizza into to get 1/4 of the pizza.
To get 5/8 of the pizza, we would need to cut the pizza into eight slices, and each slice would be one eighth of the pizza. To get 1/4 of the pizza, we would need to cut the pizza into four slices, and each slice would be one fourth of the pizza.
So, the number between 5/8 and 1/4 is 6/8.
