NCERT Class 6 Maths Fractions

Fractions

7.1 Introduction

Subhash had learnt about fractions in Classes IV and V, so whenever possible he would try to use fractions. One occasion was when he forgot his lunch at home. His friend Farida invited him to share her lunch. She had five pooris in her lunch box. So, Subhash and Farida took two pooris each. Then Farida made two equal halves of the fifth poori and gave one-half to Subhash and took the other half herself. Thus, both Subhash and Farida had 2 full pooris and one-half poori.

Where do you come across situations with fractions in your life? 

Subhash knew that one-half is written as 1 / 2 . While eating he further divided his half poori into two equal parts and asked Farida what fraction of the whole poori was that piece? (Fig 7.1) 

Without answering, Farida also divided her portion of the half puri into two equal parts and kept them beside Subhash’s shares. She said that these four equal parts together make Fig 7.2  one whole (Fig 7.2). So, each equal part is one-fourth of one whole poori and 4 parts together will be 4 / 4 or 1 whole poori.

When they ate, they discussed what they had learnt earlier. Three parts out of 4 equal parts is 3 / 4 . Similarly, 3 / 7 is obtained when we divide a whole into seven equal parts and take three parts (Fig 7.3). For

1 / 8 , we divide a whole into eight equal parts and take one part out of it (Fig 7.4).

Farida said that we have learnt that a fraction is a number representing part of a whole. The whole may be a single object or a group of objects. Subhash observed that the parts have to be equal.

7.2 A Fraction

Let us recapitulate the discussion.

A fraction means a part of a group or of a region. 5 / 12 is a fraction. We read it as “five-twelfths”. What does “12” stand for? It is the number of equal parts into which the whole has been divided. What does “5” stand for? It is the number of equal parts which have been taken out.

Here 5 is called the numerator and 12 is called the denominator. Name the numerator of 3 / 7 and the denominator of 4 / 15 .

Play this Game

You can play this game with your friends. Take many copies of the grid as shown here. Consider any fraction, say 1 / 2 . Each one of you should shade 1 / 2 of the grid.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 6 Maths Fractions