King David

New Hope Primary School

Courses

To multiply two fractions together, multiply the numerators together and multiply the denominators together.

Example 1

Work out \frac{3}{5} \times \frac{2}{3}.

\frac{3}{5} \times \frac{2}{3} = \frac{3 \times 2}{5 \times 3} = \frac{6}{15}

\frac{6}{15} can be simplified to \frac{2}{5} (take out a common factor of 3).

If the fractions to be multiplied contain mixed numbers, first convert them to improper fractions and then multiply the numerators together and multiply the denominators together.

Example 2

Work out 2 \frac{1}{3} \times 1 \frac{1}{2}.

2 \frac{1}{3} = \frac{7}{3} ( \frac{2 \times 3 + 1}{3}) and 1 \frac{1}{2} = \frac{3}{2} ( \frac{1 \times 2 + 1}{2})

2 \frac{1}{3} \times 1 \frac{1}{2} is the same as \frac{7}{3} \times \frac{3}{2}.

\frac{7}{3} \times \frac{3}{2} = \frac{7 \times 3}{3 \times 2} = \frac{21}{6} which can be simplified to \frac{7}{2} (take out a common factor of 3) which should be converted to a mixed number as the question contains mixed numbers. \frac{7}{2} = 3 \frac{1}{2} (divide the numerator by the denominator).