[TheGuyg7]

I understand the rules about adding fractions but I'm trying to visualize it and that's where the confusion sets in.

Say I have 1/4 + 1/4, sure if you follow the rules you end up with 2/4 or 50%, but what if you took the same problem and showed it with two pizzas with slices becoming the fraction.

You would get 2/8, two out of 8 slices that's been taken ,1 from each pizza with 6 slices remaining or 25% taken, so my question is are fraction set up to not allow comparison of two different fractions and instead comparison's are only allowed with two parts of the same whole?

[TheGuyg7]

I understand the rules about adding fractions but i'm trying to visualize it and that's where the confusion sets in.

Say i have 1/4 + 1/4, sure if you follow the rules you end up with 2/4 or 50%, but what if you took the same problem and showed it with two pizzas with slices becoming the fraction.

You would get 2/8, two out of 8 slices that's been TAKEN ,1 from each pizza with 6 slices remaining or 25% TAKEN, so my question is are fraction set up to not allow comparison of two different fractions and instead comparison's are only allowed with two parts of the same whole?

Oh... what I mean't by TAKEN was not by subtraction but adding it to my plate and my plate is the sum which is 25% of both pizzas, this only leaves 6 slices remaining.

[teacherjenn4]

Do you mean that the fractions you need to compare must have the same denominator?

[TheGuyg7]

Do you mean that the fractions you need to compare must have the same denominator?

Yea, having the same denominator doesn't take into account of all the slices but instead just adds numerators to equal a whole.

2/4 + 2/4 = 4/4 so all that you are doing in fractions is just adding the numerator's to create a whole but in real life you wouldn't forget what you left behind and not show it into your answer, E.G 4 slices were left behind and 4 slices were added to a new whole, so I'm just suppose to forget about the 4 slices left behind and just focus on the answer?

[ebaines]

If I understand your example, you have two pizzas that are each cut into 8 slices - for 16 slices total. You take 2 slices from each, leaving 6 slices each. So on your plate you now have 4 slices, which are 4/16 = 1/4 of whole, and in the pizza bixes you have a total of 12 slices remaining, or 12/16 = 3/4 of the whole. Interestingly each box individually has remaining 6/8 = 3/4 of what they started with.

Now suppose you had taken 3 slices from one pizza and 1 slice from the other. You still have taken 1/4 of the whole, leaving 3/4 left. But one pizza box has 5 slices (5/8) and the other has 7 slices (7/8). Altogether you have 12/16 = 3/4 left in the boxes.