Which is larger 9/13 or 3/8?

Question

I can not do fractions at all please explain!

Answer 1

Gosh, momoftwins, I know I've answered many of these types of questions for you many times. I would hope that my past explanations would've helped you, but I see you are still in the same boat as the first time I answered one of your questions. If you let me know exactly what it is that you aren't getting, maybe I can explain it to you in a more meaningful way. :)

Get them over a COMMON DENOMINATOR first, then you can compare:

9/13 = 9/13 * 8/8 = 72 / 104

3/8 = 3/8 * 13/13 = 39 / 104

So 9/13 is clearly larger than 3/8 (since 72 > 39)

~ ♥ ~

Answer 2

It's like if they asked: which is bigger, 1/2 or 2/3?
We just "know" 2/3 is bigger because the numbers are familiar, but we can also see this mathematically.

First we would need to get the bottom numbers (denominators) the same on each fraction (so that we're comparing apples to apples) like this:

1/2 = (1/2) x (3/3) = 3/6
2/3 = (2/3) x (2/2) = 4/6 *** bigger


Your question is exactly the same process, just trickier numbers.

9/13 = (9/13) x (8/8) = 72/104 *** bigger
3/8 = (3/8) x (13/13) = 39/104

This answer also makes sense, because you can see that 9/13 is more than a half, but 3/8 is less than a half.

Answer 3

To find the exact answer, divide 9 by 13 and 3 by 8 and see which is larger. For a quick "at a glance" answer, 9/13 is more than half, 3/8 is less than half, so 9/13 is larger.
If you are doing math homework, here is what your teacher probably wants you to do: convert them to the same denominator (bottom number)- do this by multiplying each fraction by the other fraction's denominator: Mulitply 9/13 by 8/8 to get 76/104. Multiply 3/8 by 13/13 to get 39/104. Then it is easy to see that 9/13 is larger.

Answer 4

9/13 is bigger. One way to see this is that 9/13 is larger than 1/2 (since 9 is larger than half of 13: 6.5) and 3/8 is smaller than 1/2 since 3 is smaller than half of 8.

A more general way to see this with positive numbers is to make a fraction with your first number as the numerator and the second as the denominator. If this fraction has value greater than 1, then the first number is larger, and if it's less than 1, the second is larger. We can do this with these two numbers:

9/13
-------- =
3/8

9*8
------- =
3*13

72
-----
39

Since the fraction is larger than 1, the numerator we put in place must have been larger than the denominator. So 9/13 > 3/8. Cheers!

** Edit ** I ♥ AUG has a good solution below, too. Depending on your circumstance, you can choose the solution method that fits best.

Answer 5

find the common denominator of both, which is the least common multiple of the denominators (bottom number) In arithmetic and number theory the least common multiple or lowest common multiple (lcm) or smallest common multiple of two integers a and b is the smallest positive integer that is a multiple of both a and b. If there is no such positive integer, e.g., if a = 0 or b = 0, then lcm(a, b) is defined to be zero. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_common_multiple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_denominator
the common denominator for those two fractions would be
8*13 or 104
you then multiply 9/13 by 8, both the numerator and the denominator (both top and bottom)
and 3/8 by 13 , both the numerator and the denominator (both top and bottom) to get 72/104=9/13 and39/104=3/8
, so 9/13 is bigger. multiplying both the top and bottom numbers by the same number won't change anything because you are just multiplying by one. ex: 9/13*8/8=9/13*1 if you take 9 divided by 13 and multiply it by 8 divided by 8, you get the same thing as 9 divided by 13 multiplied by 1.
or you can divided 9 by 13 and 3 divided by 8 and see which one's larger. 9/13= about 0.692308 and 3/8 = 0.375, so 9/13 is larger.
still, you can cross multiply, which is probably the best way.
first, pretend like they're equal
9______3
---__=__ ---
13______8
*the underscores are to separate the fractions, because i can't get yahoo to space it correctly
then, multiply the numerator of the first fraction by denominator of the second fraction (multiply top of first fraction by bottom of second fraction) 9*8=72
next, multiply the numerator of the second fraction by the denominator of the first fraction (multiply top of second fraction by bottom of first fraction) 3*13=39
if the products are not equal, then the fractions aren't equal. if the first product is larger, then the first fraction is larger, and etc.
72>39, so 9/13 is larger
any questions?:)

Answer 6

9/13=0.692
3/8=0.375

9/13 is larger than 3/8. All you need to do is take 9 and divide it by 13. foodmonster88 has the right answer also, why are you all giving people a thumbs down when they are showing you different ways that 9/13 is indeed bigger than 3/8. What is up with that? The people doing that are either jealous, unkind, rude, or we just don't give a care about other ways of proving the problem. Isn't that so?

Answer 7

the best way to do this is make them into common denominators first.

9/13 3/8

the common base is 104

72/104 39/104

so now think about this, if you had a pizza, and both the pizzas had 104 slices, one person took 72, and the other 39, which one has more slices? the 72 is larger so that means 72/104 is larger. O and secondly if you plug in those fractions in a calculator, you will get decimals, and then you can compare the decimals and figure out which one is bigger. I hope i helped.

Answer 8

Without resorting to a calculator, you can see than 9/13 has to be more than 1/2, while 3/8 has to be less than 1/2. This problem is a test of your ability to make estimates.

Answer 9

use your calculator to find the results of 9/13 and 3/8
to determine the largest and the smallest.
9/13 is larger than 3/8

Answer 10

13*8 = 104

9*8/104 = 3*13/104

72/104 = 39/104

so 9/13 is larger