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oh fountain of knowledge that is STW......
my sister has been given an insight to the sort of qeustions that she'll likely be asked when applying for a job in the navy, albeit as a dental nurse.
one of these was: 1/2 x 1/5
i'm not too bad at math, but it's been several years since i learnt this (if at all).
how does one go about working out such equations?
How many fingers does she have?
It's been a while since I did this but I'd say
1/2 = 5/10
1/5 = 2/10
5*2 = 10
10x10 = 100
10/100 = 1/10
My answer is therefore 1/10.
I think that's right?
the answer is 1/10
achieved by - multiplying the top parts (the numerators) to give the top answer (1x1), and the bottom parts (denominators) to gve the bottom part (2x5=10)
Then to be properly correct you should reduce the fraction to the lowest demoninator.
eg: 1/2 x 2/5 = 2/10 = 1/5
i should have said.... i came up with 0.1 or 1/10. i remembered something about dividing by 100.
and btw - if you have to divide by a fraction, that's the same as multiplying by the inverse. So simply invert the divisor and then multiply
eg: 2/7 -:- 1/2 = 2/7 x 2/1 = 4/7
chuck and alpin - overcomplicating. Just multiply like I said, no need to even think about it. If adding or subtracting you need to find lowest common denominators, etc. but for these two (mult and div) it's a p.o.p.
Told you it'd been a while, I'm good at overcomplicating!
fanks folks....!