Compare & Order Fractions

Maths: Year 5 & 6 National Curriculum, topic 1.4.1

Compare and Order Fractions with the Same Denominator

You can easily order fractions when the denominators are the same.

$Ordering fractions$

Ordering fractions

The denominator is the number on the bottom of a fraction.
It is easy to order fractions when the denominators are the same.
All the fractions above have a denominator of 8.

$Ordering fractions 2$

Ordering fractions 2

As the denominators are the same, you look to the numerators to order from smallest to largest.

Compare and Order Fractions with Different Denominators

When the denominators (the numbers on the bottom of fractions) are different, you need to change one or more of the fractions so that they all have the same denominator.

$Changing fractions$

Changing fractions

In order to work out which is larger, you need to make sure both fractions have the same denominator.
As 8 is a multiple of 4, you can easily change our $\large\frac{3}{4}$ into eighths.

What do you need to multiply by?

First, you look at the denominator.
You need to multiply the denominator of $\large\frac{3}{4}$ (4) by 2 to make 8.

Same to the top and bottom

Remember:
Whatever you do to the denominator you must do to the numerator.

Multiply the top by the same

If you multiply our numerator of $\large\frac{3}{4}$ (3) by 2, our numerator will become 6.
So $\large\frac{3}{4}$ is equivalent to (the same value as) $\large\frac{6}{8}$ .

Which is bigger?

$\large\frac{6}{8}$ is bigger than $\large\frac{3}{8}$ .
So $\large\frac{3}{4}$ is bigger than $\large\frac{3}{8}$ .

Using < and >

You can show which fraction is bigger using symbols.
'<' means 'is smaller than'.
3 < 4 (3 'is smaller than' 4).
'>' means 'is greater than'.
4 > 3 (4 'is greater than' 3).

Test yourself on Compare & Order Fractions

Which is larger?
Which is larger?
Which is larger?
Which is larger?
Which is larger?

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