Overview
Taking a light-hearted approach to numbers and their parts, the author, shows how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions, demonstrates how to convert them into decimals and percentages, and presents puzzles and "brain ticklers" that students will enjoy solving.
• Barron's popular Painless Series of study guides for middle school and high school students offer a lighthearted, often humorous approach to their subjects, transforming details that might once have seemed boring or difficult into a series of interesting and mentally challenging ideas. Most titles in the series feature many fun-to-solve "Brain Tickler" problems with answers at the end of each chapter.
Defines and demonstrates fractions and the terms associated with them, explaining how to add, subtract, and multiply them and providing advice for avoiding pitfalls in working with them.
Synopsis
Just about everybody knows that fractions are parts of a whole number—but how many of us remember the difference between a numerator and a denominator? Or know quite what to do with them? Painless Fractions was written especially for middle-school students, but can be helpful to just about everybody. (Let's face it: we all make occasional mistakes with fractions.) The author takes a light-hearted approach to teaching fractions. She defines all terms, then demonstrates the correct methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions, and shows how to convert them into decimals. Puns, puzzles, and "brain ticklers" add an element of fun to the process of mastering fractions. There are answers to all questions, and plenty of good advice for avoiding pitfalls when calculating with fractions.