THE FIRST FRACTION

FRACTION DURING EARLY TIMES WERE NOT NUMBERS

Did you know that fractions as we
use them today didn't exist in Europe until
the 17th century? In fact, at first,
fractions weren't even thought of as
numbers in their own right at all, just a
way of comparing whole numbers with
each other. Who first used fractions? Were
they always written in the same way? How
did fractions reach us here? These are the
sorts of questions which we are going to
answer for you. Read on ...

Here is an example of how the numbers

were made up:

The word fraction actually comes from the

Latin "fractio" which means to break. To
understand how fractions have developed
into the form we recognize, we'll have to
step back even further in time to discover
what the first number systems were like.

The Egyptians wrote all their fractions

using what we call unit fractions. A unit
fraction has 1 as its numerator (top
number). They put a mouth picture (which
meant part) above a number to make it
into a unit fraction. For example:

From as early as 1800 BC, the Egyptians

were writing fractions. Their number
system was a base 10 idea (a little bit like
ours now) so they had separate symbols
for 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 and 100000
0. The ancient Egyptian writing system
was all in pictures which were called
hieroglyphs and in the same way, they
had pictures for the numbers:

Here is one fifth.

The Unit Fraction

The hard piece from the past

Back on 1800 B.C., Egyptians

concept of fraction is limited to a so called
Unit Fraction. A unit fraction has 1 as its
numerator and positive integer as its
denominator. They use hieroglyphics as
system of writing so they place a mouth
symbol on the top the number symbol to
denote that it is a fraction.
Here is an example of fraction:

Solving problem of this kind is so hard

during that time so they use table of
equivalence to solve problem of such type.
Today unit fraction has several
practical applications. It is use on
navigation and geography, machinery,
creating prototype, etc.

The use of this system uses a

special rule; every fraction must be
representing as sum of unit fraction. For
example;
There are 5 warriors to split a 3
piece of bread, what part each warrior will
receive?
Answer:

1/2

1/15

1/30

Here an example of a map with

scale. It shows a 1/20000 scale. It means
that every 1 unit in the map is equivalent
to 20000 units on the ground. For
example, you measure a 5cm distance
from the map it is equivalent to 100,000
cm or 1km on the ground.

CHALLENGE
1. Lets do how Egyptian did in solving fractions. Express the following fraction to
equivalent unit fraction.
A.
Eight slaves are about to carry five sacks of sand. If they are to carry equal
amount of sand how much sand they need to carry.
B.
If the Governor must received 6th parts of the yield of his workers, how much
must he received if His workers yields 5 crates of grapes.
2. A certain map was drawn to a scale of 1/50000. If you read 10cm from the map what is
its equivalent ground distance?

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS
3. The least common multiple of the denominators
of a set of fraction is also known as Least Common
____ .
5. Set of fractions whose denominator of are not
the same
9. A type of fraction consisting of a whole number
and a fraction
10. A type of fraction whose numerator is less than
the denominator

DOWN
1. GCF (greatest common ___________)
2. Comes from the Latin word fracto
4. LCM (least common ___________)
6. A type of fraction whose numerator is greater
than the denominator
7. Set of fraction with equal value
8. Set of fractions whose denominator of are the
same

TRIVIA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The famous among the fractions.

Did you know:

7/10 of the Earths surface is water.

7/10 of a normal adults body is made up of
water.
It took 365 days for earth to revolved
around the sun.
22/7 is the approximate value of pi (p)
1 gigahertz is equivalent to the unit fraction
1
second
1,000 ,000,000

The atomic radius of the hydrogen atom is

53
of a meter.
1,000 ,000,000,000

``
Xyrone Zander Japos is a grade 3 student of Batangas
th
College Arts and Sciences Inc. He celebrates his 9
birthday today, March 7, 2016. His favorite subject is
Mathematics and Sciences.
ANSWERS:
CHALLENGE
1.A. 1/2 + 1/8 1.B 1/2 + 1/3 2. 500,000 cm or 5km
CROSSWORD
ACROSS
3.DENOMINATOR 5 .DISSIMILAR 9. MIXED 10. PROPER
DOWN
1. FACTOR 2 . FRACTION 4. MULTIPLE 6. IMPROPER 7. EQUIVALENT 8. SIMILAR