Erika ran $3/8$ mile. Maria ran $3/4$ mile. Who ran farther?

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Answer 1 · 2018-01-12T01:59:22

Maria ran farther

To compare both fractions, first make their denominators the same.
The fractions are $3/8$ and $3/4$

Take their LCM which would be $8$

So, the fractions now become,

$3/8$ (it remains unchanged because it already has $8$ in the denominator) and $6/8$ ( $3/4$ becomes $6/8$ because $4$ goes twice in $8$ )

So, we can see that $6/8$ > $3/8$

Thus, Maria ran farther.

An easy way could be to look at both fractions and their denominators. $3/8$ means 3 out of $8$ parts and $3/4$ means $3$ out of $4$ parts.

Definitely, anything divided into more parts will have smaller size and thus $3/4$ is bigger.

Erika ran 3/83/8 mile. Maria ran 3/43/4 mile. Who ran farther?