Video Transcript
True or false, half of a shape is smaller than a quarter of the same shape?
In this question, we’re given a statement, and we need to decide if it’s true or
false. There are two words in our sentence that had to do with parts of a shape. Did you notice them? We’ve got the word half and quarter. Do you remember what each one of these words means? A half is when we split the shape into two equal parts, and a quarter of a shape is
the name that we give to each part when we split it into four equal parts. So our sentence is really saying, “When we split a shape into two equal parts, it’s
smaller than if we split it into four equal parts.” Let’s try splitting the same shape into two parts and then four parts. We’ll see whether this is true.
Here is the same-sized square. First, let’s divide it into two equal parts. Just to make things interesting, let’s divide it at an angle like this. Each part is the same size, and we know that these are called halves of the
shape. And let’s shade one of them in so we can see how large it is. There we go. We’ve split our shape into two equal parts, and one of them is called a half. Now, let’s divide the same shape into quarters, so that’s four equal parts. There we go, four parts and they’re all the same size. Just like before, let’s shade one of them so we can see how large it is. There we are. Four equal parts and one of them is called a quarter.
Now, we can read our sentence again and see if it’s true. Half of a shape is smaller than a quarter of the same shape. Well, that’s not true at all, is it? Half of a shape is larger than a quarter of the same shape. The statement is false. The less equal pieces that we cut a shape into, the larger those pieces are going to
be. So if we only cut the shape into two equal parts, they’re going to be larger than if
we cut it into four equal parts. Let’s read the sentence the way it should read. Half of a shape is larger than a quarter of the same shape. The statement as it is is false.
