If you walk down the aisles of your local mall you probably would
get a third of the way there without coming in contact into a fraction
in some way. After all, that walk down the aisle is a fraction: 1/3.
Yes, we use fractions in one way or another in everyday life even
though we may not completely realize it. For example, you use fractions
every time you look at a clock. Yes, we know that quart past (1/4),
half past (1/2) and quarter till (1/4's past) are fractions. In fact,
all time telling is a fraction of x/60 with the exception of when
it is time on the hour as it then becomes a whole number (60/60 =
1) For example, 36 minutes past the hour is 3/5's.
This concept of looking at a clock is applicable to everything. Any
value of anything that is not a whole number is a fraction! After
all, that is what a fraction is 3/5, a part of a whole. And there are
parts of a whole everywhere! If you don't believe this, then try baking
a cake without using fractions. If it were not for fractions something
as simple as baking a cake would be impossible. When you put 2 eggs
into the cake mix you are using 1/6 of a dozen. In fact, every ingredient
in a cake recipe is a fraction of something: a cup of milk, a teaspoon
of salt, a stick of butter, a half a cup of chocolate chips. Can you
imagine the result of baking a cake mixing an entire salt shaker,
a gallon of milk, a pound of butter, a dozen eggs and an entire bag
of chocolate chips? You would either have a really poor tasting cake
or you would have a cake the size of the refrigerator!
It is interesting to note that even those students who do very well
on tests that feature fractions seem to very poorly on understanding
how fractions work in everyday life. This is not because they do not
grasp the concept of fractions but because they are somewhat disconnected
between the way fractions make the transition from the classroom and
into practical experience. This is odd because fractions are literally
everywhere. The problem is that fractions are not always presented
in a recognizable manner. When we see signs in front of a store that
say: "Half off! Everything must go!" it is pretty obvious that you
can get that $100 TV set for $50. But what really attracts people
to the store is those words "Half off!" pretty much scream about a
deal you are going to receive. Now, imagine if the stores used the
following sign: "1/2!" Not only is such a sign significantly less
catchy than "Half off" it looks like some kind of numerical code for
a secret agent! But, there are fractions as are the tons of half off,
third off, three quarters sales as well.
Yes, fractions are everywhere. There are fractions when use order
a quarter pounder with cheese (1/4), purchase gasoline for 2.79 5/9
a gallon. Granted the one fraction you won't see is the 4/9 of a penny
change on a gallon of gas but that is another story. But, you can
generally rely on coming into contact with fractions in one form or
another mainly because parts of a whole are far more common that complete
collectives of any one thing. This may seem odd to us because when
we first learn math we learn the much easier to understand whole numbers
system. As our education progresses we are introduced to more complex
aspects of math but our minds are hardwired to look for what we first
learned. As such, we have a tendency to ignore the presence of fractions
even though they are pretty much all around us all time.