Fractional Units and Shares

Fractional Units

When one unit is divided into several equal parts, each part is called a fractional unit (or unit fraction). Examples: $\frac{1}{2}, \frac{1}{3}, \frac{1}{4}, \frac{1}{10}, \frac{1}{100}$.

Comparing Unit Fractions

A common mistake is thinking that $\frac{1}{9}$ is bigger than $\frac{1}{5}$ because 9 is bigger than 5. This is incorrect.

Think of sharing a roti:

• If you share 1 roti among 5 people, you get a slice size of $\frac{1}{5}$.
• If you share 1 roti among 9 people, you get a slice size of $\frac{1}{9}$.

Sharing with more people means each person gets less. Therefore:

Parts of a Whole

We can measure larger pieces using fractional units. If a whole chikki (a sweet bar) is broken into 4 equal pieces, the fractional unit is $\frac{1}{4}$.

If we take 3 of those pieces, we have:

We usually read $\frac{3}{4}$ as “three quarters” or “three upon four”. Reading it as “3 times $\frac{1}{4}$” helps us understand that it consists of 3 units of size $\frac{1}{4}$.