Too stupid to help child with maths homework - help!!!

[Katy May]

10yr old daughter has maths homework. She has to convert decimals into vulgar fractions. What on earth are vulgar fractions (maybe a little tacky and rough!)? Found a website that says they are 'fractions where both the demoninator and the numerator are integers' but frankly that's not a lot of help!

Any advice gratefully received.

[mattie]

A vulgar fraction (as I understand it) is where the fraction value is less than 1 - e.g � or �.

Therefore 0.25 expressed as a vulgar fraction would be �,
0.5 would be � etc.

[Katy May]

Lovely, thank you. I had always thought that fractions and decimals were two separate things but my daughter has patiently explained to me that decimals are fractions too.

[saxy_jag]

I'm not sure that's correct. A fraction whose value is less that one is known as a proper fraction. A vulgar fraction is one where the top part is a higher number than the bottom, for instance, 5/4 instead of 1 1/4. As a decimal, this would be 1.25.

There's a full explanation on Wikipedia, which I sure makes sense, but it doesn't to me. I just kinda remembered this bit from GCSE. Think of a vulgar woman as being one with a big 'top half' who flaunts it!!

[colin6789]

mattie, I think you have it upside down a vulgar fraction is a fraction with the top (numerator) bigger that the bottom (denominator) i.e. 3/2 = (1 + 1/2) = 1.5
or 12/10 = (1 + 2/10) = 1.2.

I had to think about it, but it is 30 years since I did maths at University.

[Katy May]

Her homework doesn't make sense then! She has to put various decimal fractions, ranging from 0.4 to 21.167 into vulgar fractions. If a vulgar fraction is one where the top numbers is bigger than the bottom number, she can't do that with the numbers less than 1?

I don't remember maths being this complicated when I was her age (and it doesn't seem that long ago either!)

[cameo]

I found this,
http://www.easycalculation.com/what-is-fractio n.php
Hope it helps!
It seems to explain it in a simple way.

[saxy_jag]

If she's given a vulgar fraction, then she'll have to make it into a proper number, ie. 21.167 = 21 and whatever fraction the the '.167' is (my own maths doesn't extend to that).

0.4 can't be a vulgar fraction, so if the teacher's saying it is, he or she shouldn't be teaching (it's basic maths to anyone with a degree in the subject). 0.4 is actually 2/5, by the way - less than 1, so a proper fraction.

And it was this complicated when I was at school in the 1970s - just that like many, I hated the subject and I've forgotten much of it.

[Katy May]

You've remembered more than me sexy_jag, and we would have been at school in roughly the same decades!

My daughter needs to listen more carefully to the teacher's instructions! Apparently this was all explained but she was too busy talking/picking her nose/watching butterflies etc to listen.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.

[THECORBYLOON]

Decimals can be fractions but it's the way they are written that makes them decimals. A vulgar fraction is an ordinary fraction 1/5, 2/3 etc and the decimal fractions would be 0.2 and 0.33 etc.

A vulgar fraction is any whole number written above another so 3/5 and 5/3 are both vulgar fractions but I think folk are getting proper, improper and vulgar fractions confused.

A proper and improper fraction are both vulgar.

A proper fraction is one where the number below the line is greater than the nuber above it and an improper one is the reverse, the number below the line is less than the one above it so-

Proper fractions 1/4, 2/3, 3/4,1/10, 5/7 etc

Improper fractions 3/2, 5/4, 6/5 etc.

As for 21.167, that can be written as 127/6.

[THECORBYLOON]

Of course I should have put 2/3 is 0.66 as a decimal.

[Reverandfunk]

Fractions were never that complicated when i was at school lol

[Catron]

Thank God for The Corbyloon who has got this right. Some people on this thread ought to be ashamed of themselves for giving this poor lady wrong information, including somebody who studied maths at university and another who is suggesting that a teacher should not be teaching for saying 0.4 cannot be expressed as a vulgar fraction!

Katy May - if it is not too late, take the information from The Corbyloon as correct and most of the others as wrong. This really is not that complicated, as shown by the fact that your 10 year old is being taught it. Good luck to your daughter.

[Catron]

Er I have made an error myself - that'll teach me! The teacher is saying that 0.4 CAN be expressed as a vulgar fraction and is quite correct.

[Katy May]

Thanks all, I checked (rather shamefacedly) with the teacher and he confirmed corbyloon's answer, then gave me a lecture for helping her with her homework. I think, actually, I'd proved that I'm not actually capable of that! Anyway, tonights homework of decimals is going very nicely, thanks to the several gin and tonic (s). Thanks again.