Video Transcript
Round four thirty-sevenths to the
nearest half.
We’re given the fraction four
thirty-sevenths. And we’re asked to round it to the
nearest half. But what are the different
multiples of half that we could round it to? Well, one times a half equals
one-half and two lots of a half make one whole. But on our number line, we can also
include one other multiple of a half. Zero lots of one-half equals
zero. And it’s important that we do
include this as a multiple of one-half.
So we need to think where four
thirty-sevenths might be on our number line and which half it’s nearest to. What makes our fraction tricky to
deal with? Well, the denominator in the
fraction is an odd number. Because it’s an odd number, we
can’t convert it to a fraction that’s exactly the same as one-half. If we could, we’d be able to
compare four thirty-sevenths with our fraction that was the same as one-half. And we’d be able to see whether it
was close to this.
Instead, we’re going to have to use
estimation to help. And the first thing we can do is to
change our denominator into an even number, an even number that’s close to 37. Let’s change it into 36. Let’s change it to 36. Four thirty-sevenths is
approximately the same as four thirty-sixths. Now, if we divide 36 by two, we get
the answer 18. Eighteen thirty-sixths is the same
as one-half.
Four thirty-sixths seems a lot less
than this. It may even be less than a
quarter. 36 split into four equals nine. Nine thirty-sixths equals the same
as a quarter. And so four thirty-sixths is even
less than this. So we can estimate that four
thirty-sevenths has a value less than a quarter. And so the multiple of one-half
that it’s nearest to is actually zero.
We know one whole is the same as
thirty-seven thirty-sevenths. Zero is obviously the same as zero
thirty-sevenths. And we can’t give the exact amount
for one-half, but it’s between eighteen thirty-sevenths and nineteen
thirty-sevenths. So we can see that the multiple of
one-half that four thirty-sevenths is nearest to is zero.
