A fraction improper its numerator is a figure greater than that of the denominator. Fractions typically represent parts of a whole, but improper fractions represent a quantity greater than the whole, can be misleading, and need an explanation. Therefore, in this OneHowTo article we want to explain how to convert from an improper fraction to a mixed fraction or mixed number, to get a figure with a better understanding of the amount it represents.
Steps to follow:
1
First of all, it is very important that you understand what proper, improper and mixed fractions are, and for this you must also remember that the numerator is the figure that appears at the top of the fraction and the denominator is the one below. So that:
- Proper fraction: the numerator is less than the denominator
- Improper fraction: the numerator is greater than or equal to the denominator
- Mixed fraction: a whole number accompanied by a proper fraction
2
Thus, it should be noted that any improper fraction can be expressed with an equivalent mixed fraction and this conversion is precisely what we are dealing with in this OneHowTo article.
Therefore, we are going to use an example to make it easier to learn how to convert from improper fractions to mixed: So suppose we want to convert the improper fraction 9/4 into a mixed fraction.
3
In this way, the first thing we should do is divide the numerator (the top number, the largest) between the denominator (the one below, the little one); In our example we will have to divide 9 by 4.
Once the operation is done, you should look at the quotient and the rest of the division, since they will be the values that will help you form the mixed fraction.
4
And it is that the mixed fraction comes out of the quotient, followed by a fraction formed by the remainder divided by the divisor (the original denominator). Continuing with the initial example, in the result of our mixed fraction the whole number will be 2 (the quotient of the division) and the fraction 1/4 (the remainder of the divisor):
9/4 = 2 1/4
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In case you want to perform the inverse operation, that is, convert mixed fraction to improper fraction, you must keep the denominator and multiply the whole number of the mixed fraction by the denominator and add the numerator to get the numerator of the improper fraction.
That is, in our example we will keep 4 as the denominator and we will multiply 2 by 4 and add 1 to it, so that the improper fraction will be 9/4 again.
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