Question

Order the fractions in order from greatest to least: 3/8, 1/3, 1/4, 2/7

Answer 1

$\frac{2}{7} , \frac{3}{8} , \frac{1}{3}, \frac{1}{4}$

In order to solve this, you need to find the common denominator so you can compare them and clearly see which one is largest, second, and so on.

It would be hard to find any greatest common factor between all four of the denominators so the easiest thing to do is just multiply them together. You get 672. Then to find the numerators, multiply the original numerator by the denominators of the other 3 fractions, for example.

$\frac{3}{8}$ the denominator becomes 672 and the numerator will be 3 times 3 times 4 times 7 which equals 252. The 3,4 and 7 come from the $\frac{1}{3}, \frac{1}{4}, \frac{2}{7}$

So when you do that to all 4 you get:
$\frac{252}{672} ( \frac{3}{8}) , \frac{224}{672} ( \frac{1}{3} ), \frac{168}{672} ( \frac{1}{4}), \frac{288}{672} ( \frac{2}{7})$

Now, it's much easier to compare. You can just look at the numerators and put those in order from biggest to smallest. 288,252, 224, 168. By looking at the corresponding fractions next to those you can see that the order at the top falls into place.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

3/8=0.375 1/3=3.333 2/7=0.286 and 1/4=0.25. Just divide the numerator by the denominator and order the decimal equivalents if that is easier.