How do I put 4/10 10/15 3/5 14/30 16/20 in order

Question

How to order fractions to smallest to largest.

Answer 1

All the denominators divide into 60, so if we multiply each fraction by 60, the numbers will be easier to put in order. When we multiply a fraction by 60, we first divide the denominator by 60 and multiply the result by the numerator. So for example, 4/10 becomes 4×6=24 because 10 goes into 60 six times.

The list becomes:

24, 40, 36, 28, 48.

Put these in ascending order:

24, 28, 36, 40, 48.

Now we replace these with the original fractions:

4/10, 14/30, 3/5, 10/15, 16/20.

(Note that some of these fractions reduce to simpler fractions, but that would have taken an extra step.)