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Course: Arithmetic > Unit 10
Lesson 1: Multiplying fractions and whole numbers visuallyFraction multiplication on the number line
Sal uses number lines to help solve multiplication equations.
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- I only understand this a little bit not alot but a little bit 😗(16 votes)
- that would be -4(4 votes)
- everyone have a blessed wonderful day(2 votes)
- I only understand this a little bit not alot but a😗 little bit(2 votes)
- How do I multiply a fraction with different denominators? like 6 as a denominator and 7 as a denominator?(1 vote)
- is there other way to do this(1 vote)
- hi everyone is 2=2(1 vote)
- idk what that means can you put it in a different way maybe(0 votes)
- The second part is another problem that is different from the top one, am I right? It's a bit confusing as Sal suddenly changed to another number line and I'm not sure...(0 votes)
- It's not another problem. While in the first example we come up with a question and produce a solution with the line, in the second example we do the opposite and derive the formula of the problem that comes with the line. Such reverse readings are very valuable. Actually, if you stop and think about why we do something like this, you will understand. Reasons my friend, reasons! Reasons make us do many things!(0 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] So, what
we're gonna think about in this video is multiplying fractions. So, let's say that we wanted to take 2/3 and we want to multiply it by four, what is this going to be equal to? Pause this video and try to
think about it on your own. Alright, now let's work
through this together. And, to help us, I will use a number line, and let's say that each
of these hash marks represent a third. So, this is zero, this is 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, 4/3, 5/3, 6/3, 7/3, 8/3, and 9/3, and so
where is 2/3 times one? Well, 2/3 times one is
just going to be 2/3, we just take a jump of
2/3, so that is times 1. If we multiply by, or if
we take 2/3 times two, that'll be two jumps, so one 2/3, two 2/3, three
2/3, and then four 2/3. So, we just took four jumps of 2/3 each. You could view that as 2/3
plus 2/3 plus 2/3 plus 2/3, and where does that get us to? It got us to 8/3. So, notice, 2/3 times
four is equal to 8/3. Now, we could go the other way, we could look at a number line and think about what are ways to represent what the number line is showing us? And, on Khan Academy, we
have some example problems that do it that way, so I thought it would be good
to do an example like that. And, so, let's label this number line a little bit different. Instead of each of these
lines representing a third, let's say they represent a half, so zero, 1/2, 2/2, 3/2, 4/2, 5/2, why did I write 5/6, my
brain is going ahead, 5/2, 6/2, 7/2, 8/2, and 9/2. And, let's say we were to
see something like this. So, if you were to just
see this representation, so I'm going to try to draw it like this, so if you were to just
see this representation, what is that trying to represent? What type of multiplication
is that trying to represent? Well, you could view that
as 3/2 plus another 3/2 plus another 3/2, 'cause, notice, each of these jumps are three 1/2, or 3/2. So, you could view this
as 3/2 plus 3/2 plus 3/2, or another way of thinking about it is this is three jumps of 3/2. So, you can also view this
as doing the same thing as three times 3/2, and
what are these equal to? Well, 3/2 plus 3/2 plus
3/2, or three times 3/2, it gets you to 9/2.