Divide fractions I
Bringing it all together
We've seen how to divide whole numbers by fractions, and how to divide fractions by whole numbers. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes! It's time to look at dividing fractions by fractions. No need to press the panic button though, we've done the hard yards already.
Dividing fractions by fractions
Dividing is like sharing, or seeing how many of something we have in our total. It can be tricky to really imagine what that means with fractions, so this video shows you how to divide fractions by fractions, and what it looks like.
Take-home message
Now that we have worked through why we do what we do, we're ready to now use the rule for dividing fractions. This short video summarises it, and means you can use this now when dividing fractions. If you have a mixed number, such as $1$1 $\frac{2}{5}$25 you can change it to an improper fraction, $\frac{7}{5}$75.
We can now use this rule when dividing fractions:
$\frac{a}{b}$ab ÷ $\frac{c}{d}$cd = $\frac{a}{b}$ab × $\frac{d}{c}$dc
Worked Examples
QUESTION 1
Evaluate $\frac{2}{5}\div\frac{1}{7}$25÷17
Write your answer in the simplest form possible.
QUESTION 2
Evaluate $4\div\frac{1}{4}$4÷14. Write your answer in the simplest form possible.
QUESTION 3
Evaluate $\frac{4}{9}\div1\frac{2}{9}$49÷129, giving your answer in simplest form.