Introduction

Recall that when some whole number of things are shared equally among some number of people, fractions tell us how much each share is.

Shabnam: Do you remember, if 4 pizzas are divided equally between two children, how much pizza will each child get?

Mukta: Each child will get 42 = pizzas.

Shabnam: The fraction ‘two’ is written as 2/1. We also sometimes read this as ‘two upon one.’

Mukta: If we have one more pizza and it is cut into 2 equal parts, how much extra pizza will each child get?

Shabnam: Since the 5th pizza is divided into 2 equal parts, each child gets 122 pizza.

Mukta: So, in total, how much pizza does each child get?

Shabnam: Each child first gets 2 pizzas from the 4 pizzas, and then 12 pizza from the 5th pizza. So, the total pizza per child is:

2 + 12 = 212

So, each child gets 2 12 pizzas.

Mukta: And which is more, 2 12 pizzas or 2 pizzas?

Shabnam: Since 2 12 means 2 whole pizzas plus an extra half pizza, it is clearly more than 2 pizzas.