Sign Up
School Account Sign Up
Contributor: Ashley Nail. Lesson ID: 13889
Have you ever wondered how to reduce or enlarge the size of something? Did you ever think multiplying could do both? Well, it depends on what type of fraction you multiply by!
Declan is working on a project for his art class. His group has to make a tiny model of a kitchen.
Declan’s art teacher told his group that the carrots are too big and not made to scale. The teacher explains that scale means the size of the carrots needs to be accurate but reduced or enlarged.
Declan measures the carrots as 11/16 of an inch and knows they need to be resized to be smaller.
Before you help Declan resize the carrots, look at an example of resizing using different fractions.
Look at the fork below, which measures 3/5 of an inch.
Look at the three multiplication expressions you can use to resize the fork (below).
First, look at the expression in green.
You can break the fraction into 3/5 x 2/2. You know that 2/2 can be simplified into the whole number of 1, which changes the expression to 3/5 x 1.
Without calculating the expression, you can assume the size of the fork will stay the same since it is multiplied by 1.
Next, look at the pink expression.
2/3 is less than 1, which means you will scale down the size of the fork. Or, in other words, the product of 3/5 x 2/3 will be less than 3/5.
Last, look at the red expression.
3/2 is greater than 1, which means you will scale up the size of the fork. Or, in other words, the product of 3/5 x 3/2 will be greater than 3/5.
You just resized the fork by multiplying the original number by different types of fractions!
Review what you just learned!
When you are ready, click NEXT to visit the Got It? section to practice on your own!
Supplies
FAVORITE
Like