Video Transcript
What is the missing equivalent
fraction? One-third, two-fifths, five-tenths,
or one-half.
In maths, we use the word
“equivalent” to describe things that have the same value as each other. And this question asks us to find a
missing equivalent fraction. In other words, we’re looking for
some fractions that are the same as each other here. And we’re shown a number line to
help us. Number lines are a really useful
way to spot equivalent fractions. Let’s have a look more closely at
this one. We can see that this one begins
with zero and ends with one. And we can think of this as
representing one whole, and so each of the fractions that are labeled on our number
line are parts of the whole amount.
Now, if we look at all these
fractions, we can see that they have a denominator of 10. Our number line is labeled in
tenths: one-tenth, two-tenths, and so on. Above our number line, we can see
where the missing fraction belongs. What’s this fraction worth? Well, if we look underneath, we can
see how many tenths it’s the same as. It’s exactly at the point that’s
labeled five-tenths. So we know our missing fraction is
equivalent to or worth the same as five-tenths.
So which of our possible answers is
correct? Is one-third equivalent to
five-tenths or two-fifths? What about five tenths or even
one-half? Now, only one of these is the
correct answer. Two of them are completely wrong,
and one of them, well, we wouldn’t really write. Can you spot the one that we
wouldn’t write? It’s five-tenths. This point on a number line was
already labeled five-tenths. So although of course we could say
five-tenths equals five-tenths, it’s not what this question is asking us. Our equivalent fraction is going to
be one that’s worth the same as five-tenths but isn’t five-tenths.
This leaves us with three possible
answers, one-third, two-fifths, or one-half. Now this is tricky because our
number line isn’t split up into three parts to show thirds or five parts to show
fifths or even two parts to show one-half. We’re going to have to visualize or
picture in our heads what each fraction might look like. Let’s alter the top part of our
number line to help us imagine what they might look like. Firstly, one-third would be the
same as if we split the number line into three equal parts, and we labeled the first
one of them. One-third isn’t the same as
five-tenths, is it?
Secondly, two-fifths would be the
same as if we split our number line into five equal parts, and we labeled the second
one along. Interestingly, we can see that
two-fifths is equivalent to one of our fractions, but it’s the same as four-tenths
not five-tenths. This only leaves us with one
fraction. To show one-half, we need to divide
the whole number line into two equal parts and label where we know the mark
belongs. And we can tell by looking at our
number lines that we found the right answer. Five-tenths equals one-half.
