Egyptian fractions worksheet

Pupils can learn about fractions by doing divisions the Egyptian way!

When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June This unit has a brief look at what is known about Egyptian Fractions. These are unit fractions — fractions whose numerator is one. We look at how fractions can be represented in terms of Egyptian Fractions.

Egyptian fractions worksheet

One goal of this task is to help students develop comfort and ease with adding fractions with unlike denominators. Another goal is to help them develop fraction number sense by having students decompose fractions. Because the Egyptians represented fractions differently than we do, it can also help students understand that there can be many ways of representing the same number. This helps prepare them for writing algebraic expressions in 6th grade. This task is an instructional task; the teacher may wish to supplement part b of the question in two directions:. In general, however, they used tables in order to break down fractions into sums of unit fractions. One issue which comes up in the solution is that there are apparently many ways to write an Egyptian fraction. This leads to an interesting question: how do you find the "best'' Egyptian fraction representing a given fraction? Here a reasonable interpretation of "best'' would be one which has the smallest number of unit fractions. This problem will be addressed in a second task which falls under the high school algebra standards. Converting to this common denominator we find. Performing subtraction gives.

Is there an algorithm for finding something? What other numbers have the sum equal to the product and can this be so for any whole numbers? Summarise the results on the board, egyptian fractions worksheet.

Or search by topic. Egyptian Fractions printable sheet. Instead they wrote fractions like these as a sum of different unit fractions. You can start by exploring unit fractions at Keep it Simple In this problem we are going to start by considering how the Egyptians might have written fractions with a numerator of 2 i. You might want to check that these are correct. If you can't see how these have been generated, take a look at Keep it Simple.

Forgot password? New user? Sign up. Existing user? Log in. Already have an account? Log in here. Dating back to over 2, B. The Egyptian mathematicians exclusively used only unit fractions in their perception and did not seem to accept the idea of vulgar fraction, where the numerator is divided by denominator, as we do today.

Egyptian fractions worksheet

One goal of this task is to help students develop comfort and ease with adding fractions with unlike denominators. Another goal is to help them develop fraction number sense by having students decompose fractions. Because the Egyptians represented fractions differently than we do, it can also help students understand that there can be many ways of representing the same number. This helps prepare them for writing algebraic expressions in 6th grade. This task is an instructional task; the teacher may wish to supplement part b of the question in two directions:. In general, however, they used tables in order to break down fractions into sums of unit fractions. One issue which comes up in the solution is that there are apparently many ways to write an Egyptian fraction. This leads to an interesting question: how do you find the "best'' Egyptian fraction representing a given fraction?

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The outline of the unit looks more like an investigation of Egyptian Fractions than a series of lessons that reinforce arithmetic of fractions. Ask students either on their own, in pairs, or as a group to produce a short report on an aspect of Egyptian Fractions. Get them to work in their groups on the Egyptian Fractions in Copymaster 2. As part of this unit we suggest that students undertake a project based on material that they can find on the Internet. They might like to use the Egyptian Fractions in Copymaster 2. Description of Mathematics. How did Egyptians calculate with their fractions? IM Commentary One goal of this task is to help students develop comfort and ease with adding fractions with unlike denominators. The ancient Egyptian ideas about fractions are quite surprising. In this final lesson we ask student so produce a short report on an aspect of Egyptian Fractions.

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But what do you think it stands for? Note that a Pattern ii above is more complicated and could be reserved for the more able students. But there are patterns the other way. Take a vote and formulate a conjecture as a result. Be sure to use the words numerator and denominator. Get the students to make a summary of what they have found in this lesson. Some of these systems seem strange or complicated from our perspective. The answer follows very quickly from equation a of lesson 1. Discuss this with the class and help them to realise that there is no end to the number of representations they can find. This is scheduled for the last teaching session of the unit. Again, for weaker students the pattern can be reinforced by doing some particular examples.