Asked by Tabby

Which one is greater 5/6 or 8/9? I think it's 8/9.
Answered by Ms. Sue
The best way to compare fractions is to find their equivalents with the same denominator.

5/6 = 15/18
8/9 = 16/18

You're right -- 8/9 is larger.
Answered by drwls
You are correct. You can figure that out by converting to decimals (0.833 vs 0.889), or by realizing that 8/9 is 1/9 less than 1 while 5/6 is 1/6 less than 1. 8/9 is closer to 1
Answered by drwls
Ms. Sue just provided another way: conversion to fractions with a common denominator. I like that even better
Answered by Claudia
You are right.
if you divide 5 by 6 you get .833 and if you divide 8 by 9 you get .899 certainly .899 is a bigger number.
Answered by Damon
But you need to be sure :)

What if it were 5/18 compared to 3/10?

If they both had the same denominator, you would know right away.

So lets find the least common denominator for MY (not your) example:
factor 18 into 3 * 3 * 2
factor 10 into 5 * 2
(you would factor 6 and 9 )
now to make them the same I must multiply 18 by 5
18*5 = 90
and
multiply 10 by 3 and 3 or 9
10*9 = 90
sure enough, that would work so multiply 5/18 by 5/5 to get 25 over 90
3/10 by 9/9 to get 27 over 90
clearly 27 over 90 is bigger than 25 over 90
so for MY EXAMPLE 3/10 is bigger than 5/18
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