Video Transcript
What fraction is shaded?
In the picture, we can see a
rectangle. It’s this long strip of a rectangle
here. And we can see that part of this
rectangle has been shaded orange, but not all of it. If all of the rectangle had been
shaded orange, we might say one rectangle is orange or one whole rectangle is
orange. But this is only part of a whole
rectangle. And we can use fractions to
represent part of a whole.
What fraction of this long
rectangle is shaded? Well, we know how to write
fractions, don’t we? We need a line, a number on the
top, and then a number on the bottom. To remember what each number
represents, the denominator or the bottom number in a fraction shows us the number
of equal parts that the whole amount has been split into. Firstly, we can look at our long
strip of a rectangle. And we can see that each of the
parts that it’s been split into they are all equal, aren’t they? And there are one, two, three, four
parts. We call these quarters. Each of these separate parts is
worth one-quarter. And because we’re talking about
quarters, we know our denominator must be four, just like all those quarters that
we’ve labeled our parts with.
So now that we know we’re talking
about quarters, let’s go back to our question. What fraction is shaded is really
asking us how many quarters are shaded. To remember what the numerator in
the fraction represents, we use it to show the number of parts that we’re talking
about. And in this question, we’re talking
about the parts that are shaded. And there are one, two, three
shaded parts. Three out of a possible four parts
are shaded, or three-quarters. The number on the bottom tells us
that we’re talking about quarters. And the number on the top tells us
how many quarters. The fraction of this rectangle
that’s shaded is three-quarters.
