Steps to Dividing Fractions

... this is stolen, unabashedly, from our developmental math instructor's notes which are appropriately required for all students. This assumes you know the prerequisites - but this is a sticking point for enough people so I"m posting it :)

First change 'em to improper fractions if you have to.


1. Copy the first fraction.
2. Write times for division
3. Flip the third fraction.
4. Multiply 'em.

... I will usually mention one of my favorite "big ideas" - that you're not "changing division to multiplication" at all; you're also changing the fraction, which "balances" the change. You give to one thing, and take from the other, so really it's the same thing but written in a way that makes it easier to get the eright answer.
I will have done a few visuals to show what it is like to really divide something **by** a half, and how that is different from dividing something *into* halves.