Math Review/ Learn
Jean Montgomery, Austin Community College
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Fractions

As a healthcare provider, you may have to interpret prescriptions written with fractions. Therefore, it is important that you are able to understand what the fraction represents and to manipulate it in order to provide the correct dosage for a patient.

Review of fractional parts


math1A fraction is a number that represents part of a whole number and contains three parts: numerator, dividing line, and denominator devisor. If these are mixed up, you can cause series injury to your patient.



Value of a fraction

Sometimes it may be necessary to determine the value of a fraction compared to another. You can do this using three methods:

When the denominators are the same, the fraction with the highest numerator has the highest value.

  1. 1
    4
    vs.
    3
    4
    arrow
    highest numerator - highest value


  2. When the numerators are the same, the fraction with the lowest denominator has the highest value.

    lowest denominator - highest value
    arrow
    1
    8
    vs.
    1
    16



  3. When there is no common numerator or denominator in the fractions, convert each fraction to its decimal equivalent so that you can compare the value of the two fractions.

    1
    3
    vs.
    3
    5



    1
    3
    = 0.33
    3
    5
    = 0.60
    arrow
    highest decimal - highest value

 

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