 You and two friends order a pizza and it's been cut into 10 equal slices. One of your friends grabs five slices, the other grabs three slices, and you're left with two slices. Now you're trying to figure out who got the least amount of pizza. In this scenario, you probably easily realize that you got the least amount of pizza, having only gotten two slices. You're right, but how did you know this? Because the slices are exactly the same size, the one who got the fewest slices got the least amount of pizza, and the one who got the most slices got the most pizza. Now how does this talk of pizzas relate to fractions? Fractions are basically portions. Since the pizza was cut into 10 slices, each slice was one tenth of a pizza. The one who got five slices got five tenths of the pizza. The one who got three slices got three tenths, and you got two tenths. Just as you were easily able to compare pizza portions, because the size of the pizza slices are the same, it's easy to compare fractions that have the same denominator. When the fractions have the same denominator, simply order the fractions according to their numerator. Take for example the fractions five tenths, two tenths, and three tenths. They all have the same denominator, ten. Since you know that two is smaller than three, and three is smaller than five, you can arrange your fractions as two tenths, three tenths, and five tenths. Two tenths is the smallest fraction, followed by three tenths, and five tenths is the largest fraction. But what if your pizza was cut unevenly? What if some of the slices are bigger than others? You wouldn't be able to just count slices as before. Let's return to your pizza party. Some slices are smaller, and some are bigger. One friend gets three of the smaller slices, another gets one smaller slice, and you get three of the bigger slices. You notice that the bigger slices are twice as big as the smaller one. So, if you cut the bigger slices in two, you see that each big slice is the same as two of the smaller slices. Your three big slices are actually the same as six small slices. Just as you cut the bigger slices to look like the smaller slices, so you can compare them, you have to change the fractions when you compare fractions of different denominators. The trick is to change your fractions so that all the denominators are the same. By doing this, you can then compare the numerators like you did earlier. Take for example, the fractions three tenths, one tenth, and three fifths. The first thing to do is to find the least common denominator. The LCD here is ten. Since ten is both a multiple of five and ten, the fractions then become three tenths, one tenth, and six tenths. Since the fractions now have the same denominator, we can order them just like we did earlier. One tenth is the smallest fraction, followed by three tenths, and six tenths is the largest fraction. There you have it. Even though you got three slices, you actually got six tenths of the pizza. Let's try another example to see if you understood it. Order these fractions, four fifths, three quarters, and five tenths. The lowest common denominator is twenty. So we rewrite our fractions as sixteen over twenty, fifteen over twenty, and ten over twenty. Since ten is less than fifteen and fifteen is less than sixteen, our fractions in order from smallest to biggest is ten over twenty, fifteen over twenty, and sixteen over twenty. There you have it. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, and don't forget to subscribe, comment below if you have any questions. Why not check out our Fuse school app as well? Until next time.