One Ninth

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics

Topics: Starter | Fractions | Investigations

Inger Kisby, Herts and Essex High School
The lemon law was wonderful as it catered for all abilities. My year 7 top set also enjoyed the fractions adding up to one ninth
Harrytown Catholic High School, 9A
We found the 1/27 + 1/27 + 1/27 quite easily, we then had a good discussion at the different denominators. We initially thought it was 1/26 + 1/27 + 1/28 but we did manage to prove this did not work. We eventually found the solution 1/18 + 1/27 + 1/54 using some algebra.
Grade 12 Advanced Functions, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
My class determined that one of the denominators had to be 9 and then the other two could be +2 and -2, or +3 and -3, or + 4 and -4, etc.
Lucius Evans, Mandeville
My year 7 students cracked this up much faster than I anticipated. Thereafter they were led to write up their own following this pattern.Interestingly they increased the number of fractions and went beyond unit fractions.
Transum,
Thanks so much for sharing your solutions, methods and thoughts on this question. It is good to know that as your pupils are working on this task, students in other classrooms around the world are contemplating the very same conundrum. Reading others' comments helps bring the mathematics to life and create a sense of a community of learners enjoying this fascinating subject. Keep those comments, observations and anecdotes coming!

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This starter has scored a mean of 3.1 out of 5 based on 399 votes.

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Answers

See also the Starter called One Fifth and a related GCSE question.

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	Teacher, do your students have access to computers? Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons? Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).