The fraction word comes from the Latin word “fraction,” which signifies “to break.” The Egyptians have been writing a fraction from as early as 1800 BC.
The numerator is the number written on the upper part of the fraction. A denominator is a number written on the lower part of the fraction
What are numerators and denominators?
The numerator is the number written on the upper part of the fraction; it comes from the Latin word “enumerate” in English; we denote this as “to count.”
To count denotes it through counting the number of equally sized pieces that accommodate in the fraction.
A denominator is a number written on the lower part of the fraction; it comes from the Latin word “nomen,” which denotes “name” and also appears in words like “nomenclature” and “nominate.”
Its (name) also reflects or indicates the type of fraction that is represented by the numerator.
Examples: 3/4, 6/7, 1/10, 4/8
In the example mentioned above 3,6,1, and 4 are the numerators, and 4,7,1, and 4 are the denominators.
Who started the system of fractions?
The fraction word comes from the Latin word “fractio,” which signifies “to break.” The Egyptians have been writing a fraction from as early as 1800 BC.
Their writing system was totally in pictures which we were denoted as hieroglyphs. Egyptians usually used fractions while they wrote, which we called a unit fraction.
It is very complicated to do any calculation in the Egyptian system that is a considerable disadvantage for representing fractions.
To solve this problem, Egyptians invented lots of tables to answer all their unsolved questions and to describe the whole part, fractions were written using words, in Ancient Rome
Misconception about Fractions
- It is always less than the denominator. The numerator can also be greater than the denominator in some cases.
- Students overgeneralize their whole number knowledge
- Fractions are written in a unique way
- Many meanings of fractions
Fact about Fractions
If there is a 0 in the numerator, then the whole fraction becomes zero.
