Dividing Fractions

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This material is an extract from our National 5 Mathematics: Curriculum Breakdown course led by instructor Andrew Eadie. Enrol in the full course now and gain access to over 100 detailed topic breakdowns, 48 video tutorials (20 hours) and 39 quizzes spanning the entire curriculum.

 

Dividing Fractions

Dividing fractions is fairly straightforward: you simply flip the top and bottom numbers of the divisor around (note, the divisor is the second fraction), change the division sign to a multiplication sign, and multiply the two fractions in the usual fashion. Or, “flip the second fraction and multiply” for short.

 

Example 1

\begin{aligned}\frac{1}{2}\div\frac{1}{2}&=\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{2}{1} \\[12pt]&=\frac{1\times 2}{2\times 1} \\[12pt]&=\frac{2}{2}=1\end{aligned}

 

Example 2

\begin{aligned}\frac{3}{4}\div \frac{3}{5}&= \frac{3}{4}\times\frac{5}{3}=\frac{3\times5}{4\times3}=\frac{15}{12}\end{aligned}

 

Now we simplify \frac{15}{12} to get the final answer:

 

\begin{aligned}\frac{15}{12}=\frac{\sout3\times5}{\sout3\times4}=\frac{5}{4}\end{aligned}

 

Key Outcomes

To divide fractions, flip the second fraction and multiply as normal. Always simplify where possible.

SQA Past Paper Questions:

Dividing Fractions

Click the links below to download SQA past paper questions that are directly relevant to Dividing Fractions:

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